Apple patent application suggests the corporate is asking so as to add personal security measures to its mobile devices.

To mitigate the specter of “Apple picking” – a term cops sometimes use to consult cellphone theft — Apple’s next iPhone may include “attack detection mode.”

The World Intellectual Property Organization has just published a patent application that Apple filed last June, titled “Mobile Emergency Attack and Failsafe Detection.” It describes how to set a mobile communications device to summon aid at the user’s behalf if the user fails to engage with the device.

“While the device is in attack detection mode, certain events may cause the device to summon assistance automatically, even without further interaction from the device’s user,” the patent application states. “For instance, while the device is in attack detection mode, if the device’s user ceases to have interaction with the device in a specified manner for a minimum of a specified time period, then the device can automatically place a telephone call to emergency services (e.g., by calling 911).”

[What features has Apple added to its latest mobile OS? Read iOS 7.1: What’s New.]

Apple’s filing coincides with the launch last summer of the Secure Our Smartphones (SOS) initiative, an effort to encourage smartphone makers to be more proactive in preventing smartphone theft. In step with Consumer Reports, smartphone theft accounts for 30% to 40% of robberies in major cities nationwide. Caused by the campaign, federal legislators and state lawmakers in California have proposed mandatory kill switches for mobile devices.

Apple researchers also are contemplating triggering the attack detection mode if the device experiences a sudden shock as measured by an accelerometer. This selection could prove useful for calling 911 within the event of a fall prompted by an assault or illness, or a traffic accident.

For detecting car accidents, the patent application means that GPS data and automotive sensors comparable to airbag deployment indicators might likely be factored into the calculation that determines whether to name for help. Apple’s recently unveiled CarPlay framework for integrating iOS devices with vehicle systems may provide a fashion for Apple products to access automotive sensor data.

The patent application indicates that attack detection mode could take actions like emitting an alarm at maximum volume, along with or as a substitute to calling emergency services, a good way to attract help from people nearby.

Attack detection mode is also triggered by a “dead-man’s switch,” akin to the discharge of an audio button that had previously been held down, or by a noisy sound. The patent application permits the chance that a tool could be set to capture and transmit incoming audio or to emit audio in the course of the device’s speaker, in order that emergency personnel can hear what is going on and communicate with the device’s owner.

Of course, a tool that watches over its owner also entails potential privacy costs. Data captured by an attentive mobile device, whether stored locally or remotely, may be used against the device’s owner. Let’s say, within the event of an auto accident, the device owner’s speed will be accessible to prosecutors and maybe to the owner’s insurance company. However, the promise of security, even if the chance is remote, tends to outweigh the uncertain value of privacy. Who wouldn’t need a phone with attack detection mode?

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Thomas Claburn was writing about business and technology since 1996, for publications along with New Architect, PC Computing, InformationWeek, Salon, Wired, and Ziff Davis Smart Business. Before that, he worked in film and tv, having earned a not particularly useful … View Full Bio

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