Apple patent application suggest iPod nano could become much more of a ‘fashion accessory’

There is no make certain that it is going to occur within the next iPod nano — or any iPod nano in any respect, for that matter — but a newly published patent application has now offered a couple of more hints about how Apple might make any such device much more wearable. Titled simply, “Environment Sensitive Display Tags,” the patent application details how a small, wearable device could use a number of sensors and inputs (including a camera, microphone, accelerometer — even a thermometer) to procure information regarding its surroundings and translate that right into a visual element that’s displayed at the screen. So, for example, the camera may be used to create a background that fits your shirt or jacket, or the accelerometer may well be used to make a screen saver react for your movements (just like the rain drops illustrated above). All of which, the applying suggests, could serve to make the device much more “aesthetically pleasing” as a “fashion accessory.”

Incidentally, the patent application also noticeably features “Games” as a menu option in a few of the illustrations — which might be new to the present type of iPod nano — but there isn’t a mention of it inside the actual claims. And, in view that it was filed back in November of 2009, the application’s authors could well have simply been engaged on the idea that games would simply carry over from the former generation.