Apple may block you from taking videos and photos at concerts

Hear that? It's the sound of millions of millennials blogging their rage at the news that Apple is working on a technology that could block them from filming at gigs. 

Okay - so it's not just millennials (it's mainly them - ruddy Snapchat), but such is the apparent desire from venues and fellow concert-goers to prevent audiences from photographing or recording a live performance that Apple has filed a patent for an infrared system that prevents smartphone cameras from working.

What does it do?

The patent, filed back in 2011, has something of a complicated title: "Systems and methods for receiving infrared data with a camera designed to detect images based on visible light"

A venue could install a series of infrared emitters which would send out a signal that iPhones could pick up via their camera. This could be any kind of information - triggering useful location information to appear on your screen, or alternatively, telling your iPhone to prevent any camera operations. 

How does it work?

The emitter would effectively transform an iPhone's camera into a new point of data collection: rather than sending out a WiFi, Bluetooth or other wireless signal -all of which can be blocked - this infrared emitter would always kick in whenever you attempted to use your phone's camera. 

A venue could send any encoded data they like to your iPhone's camera using infrared light - from information about an object in a museum, to shutting down your attempt to record a concert. 

Does anyone actually want this?

Yes - and not just us old grumpy types who hate what the modern gig experience has become. 

Performers including the likes of Adele and Benedict Cumberbatch have famously stopped mid-performance to tell punters to stop filming them - but it's not just live acts that could benefit from the tech.

It would help cinemas clamp down on the tits who insist on filming new releases, and ensure that performances that don't want to have their ending or climax revealed to the wider world might keep a lid on their magical moments.

The catch? Apple's patent would only work with iPhones. But where there's a will...