Over the past year, occurrences of Apple store theft have erupted around the United States, which is hardly a surprise considering the ease with which criminals can steal devices in a store with little (or no) security and Many devices displayed on tables for customer tasting. The Ma, however, may be about to take action on this.
A patent recently published by the US Patent and Trademark Office (and discovered by Patently apple) describes a new security system developed by Apple for its stores, involving a kind of “invisible fence” formed by radio frequency waves to detect when a display device is stolen.
The system is intelligent and recognizes when the stolen device is approaching the "edge" of the fence, which already triggers a silent alert on the store security system; if the device leaves the perimeter, another alert is sent; and if the device remains outside the fence for more than a few minutes, it will be deactivated and its location will be transmitted to the store system.
This deactivation can occur in several ways: on touchscreen devices, for example, touch operation can be disabled; In devices with buttons or keyboards, the keys may stop working. The device now displays on its screen a notice stating that it was taken from the store in question, adding the Apple Store phone number to the store staff to provide instructions on how to return it.
If the stolen device is recovered, it is enough that the store enters the corporate credentials in it for its operation to return to normal.
Obviously, because it is a patent, there is no way to know if Apple intends to make the technology a real application in its stores or how long it will take for the system to work. Still, the good idea is certainly to curb criminal action.
