As Patently Apple reports, a patent describing an interface for mobile devices to remotely control boats has appeared on the web. Among the authors of the registered idea is Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who owned a megayacht Venus.
The technology is described as follows. An app is installed on a smartphone or tablet. Thanks to it, the gadget communicates wirelessly with an interface (for example, a server) which is paired with the ship's electronics and receives information from sensors which collect data about the environment and the ship. For example, the weather conditions and the boat's speed and fuel reserve. In turn, the mobile app can also send data to the ship's electronics.
However, the patent wasn't filed by Apple, where Jobs worked, but by Savant Systems, the company working on systems like «Smart Home» which work on a similar principle (they allow remote control of all the electronics in the room). Jobs, however, is recorded as the author of the idea.
Whether the patent idea will be put into practice is not yet known.
