Apple iPhone new patent: built-in sensor to record the device's carbon footprint

CTOnews.com December 8 news, according to the list published by the United States Trademark and Patent Office (USPTO), Apple has obtained a technology patent, suggesting that the future iPhone will have built-in sensors for calculating the carbon footprint of the device.

CTOnews.com quoted Bloomberg as saying that an iPhone 15 Pro generates 66 kilograms (145 pounds) of carbon dioxide during its life cycle, and based on Apple's iPhone shipments in 2022, the total carbon footprint for that year is estimated to be 15 million metric tons, about four times the annual emissions of buildings in Washington, D.C.

According to the patent description, Apple plans to build one or more sensors into future iPhone products to calculate the power or energy that the iPhone device draws from the power grid and estimate the carbon footprint of the device.

Figure 5A of Apple's patent illustrates a flowchart for measuring device power consumption and deriving grid energy consumption and carbon footprint from it; Figure 6 illustrates a system that uses grid data to derive carbon footprint from energy consumption and report such data to an external server.

The patent schematic only shows the iPhone, but according to the patent description, the sensor can be extended to Apple devices and accessories such as Mac, iPad, Apple Watch and HomePod in the future.