He was at the US patent office publicat a new patent for a facial recognition system, spatial orientation and a new audio system apparently intended for the iPad 2 tablet. This new facial recognition system would use the front camera of the iPad tablet to retrieve images and it does the recognition through software, but it will probably work without problems with the rear camera. The spatial orientation function is apparently made to allow the iPad tablet to rotate the screen during a video call and it is assumed that it will work using the accelerometer, the proximity sensor or the compass.
The patent goes on to explain that the orientation sensor may be provided by a compass, accelerometer, an inertial sensor, or other device. It would be provided by the selection of the orientation of the display, the shape of the touch input or image recognition of the listener.
There is not much to say about the speakers, basically in this patent it is specified that they will be placed in a non-linear position so that the sounds emitted will be of a slightly higher power than the current tablet. These speakers will more than likely be present in the new iPad 2 tablet because this patent confirms the initial indications regarding the possibility of their introduction.
The patent also talks about a new "stand" for the iPad on which the tablet would be fixed using some kind of magnet, but it is hard to say if we will see this stand launched by Apple.
