Certain things in life are impossible. Alchemy. Flying. Turning Super Saiyan.
Apple is looking to add “preventing water damage” to that list with new improved ways of indicating if you exposed your gadgets to a little midnight turd fishing in the toilet.
Apple’s new technology would detect water damage in portable device through circuitry rather than the current color-coded-more-sensitive-than-Lebron’s-feelings contact indicators. Apple’s patent application titled “Mechanisms for Detecting Exposure to water in an Electronic Device,” indicates water-soluble glue, and the previously mentioned circuit based methods as superior forms of detection.
According to the filing Apple employees are sometimes unqualified to properly check whether or not a customer’s device has water damage. This results in some people receiving replacements when their device should not have been covered under the warranty.
In order to save money the first solution is described as a “immersion detection mechanism” where the water sensor would be covered in a water-soluble conductive glue that would act as an electronic insulator between two conducting pieces. If a device is submerged and the insulator dissolves changing the impedance of the path, it would alert a data processor that would log water exposure events within the device.
The next solution involves several water sensors arranged and connected within the device as a randomly accessible sensor array. A current would be passed through these paths and any change in impedance detected would again alert a data processor which would then log water damage events.
Obviously questions of sensitivity and false readings would come into question. Would simply leaving your phone in the bathroom during a particularly long shower be enough to register with the sensors as a water damage event? Hopefully the devices can be calibrated to withstand non-harmful daily conditions.
Source: Apple Insider
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