It seems as if the post-pandemic world shall not only change the way we interact with other people around us in real life but also bring a massive change and difference when it comes to taking selfies. And, the American multinational technology company, Apple Inc., appears to be at the forefront of all this. As per various reports, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has quite recently granted a new patent to the iPhone maker for software, which shall allow the users to click selfies while following the social distancing norms (synthetic group selfies).
According to Apple’s Patent Application filed, an Apple device user (it is not yet crystal clear as to whether the feature shall be available in iPhones, iPads, or both) shall be able to invite others for taking part in a group selfie, and the software shall further arrange them all together in a single image. The selfie can include stored videos or images, still photos, or live streaming videos or photos. The users can keep the group version of the selfie as well as the original selfie. Moreover, the original user and recipients of the group selfie can also conveniently modify the selfie; for instance, putting themselves at different positions within the group.
As per the illustrations submitted by Apple along with the patent application, the users shall get an option to accept the selfie clicked or retake the selfie before sending it to the person who had invited the user to take part in the group selfie. In the very first place, the user shall get an option to either accept or decline the request sent by others.
The idea or concept of taking a socially-distant selfie or synthetic group selfie seems ideal in the present situation where there’s a global pandemic restricting social gatherings; however, the concept wasn’t specifically developed while keeping the current state of affairs in mind. Apple had filed the patent application two years ago, and the patent has been granted this year in June.
There is no indication as of now concerning when or how Apple might decide to come up with this software or whether the synthetic group selfies shall ever become a thing or not.