What has Apple been up to lately? Well record it invention patents but the one presented now was registered in Europe and refers to an application called Noteworthy that would allow us to use an iPhone as a scanner. It seems that Apple has patented a method that would use an optical sensor implemented in the iPhone's LCD to scan documents directly into the phone. It is a generic technology called OCR and in the AppStore there are already applications that do this using the cameras of our devices.
It appears that Apple may want to drum up a little more mystery and excitement going into this year's WWDC (World Wide Developer Conference) on June 6, 2011. Today, the European Trademark Office has revealed Apple's latest "Noteworthy" trademark filing. On the surface it appears to be a new iOS app – that may relate to providing OCR capabilities. If correct, it would support a February 2011 patent describing a future optical in-LCD sensing panel for the iOS devices: In other words – an App that could allow your iPhone to double as a scanner.
The new iOS application would scan the documents on the phone and allow them to be uploaded to the Internet using the Google Docs service. OCR technology can be used in most smartphones on the market, so Apple should make substantial changes to the service to make it interesting. I for one would find this function very useful and I hope that Apple will "reinvent" it in the iPhone 5.
