Canon is well known for filing a lot of patents for new camera tech. An interesting one that caught our eye today is for something that sounds unassuming – a better camera battery indicator.
Once you dig in, though, it’s actually quite cool. Essentially, the patent application is for a battery indicator that expands when your camera is connected to an external battery like a USB power bank – and tells you how much power is in both devices.
This enables you to get an instant readout on the state of your battery situation when you’re out in the field – both how much juice is in the camera, and how much is in the camera. The patent is a little hard to read even when run through a translator, but as the folks at Canon News have noted, some of the diagrams show up to four battery indicators on the screen.
This probably reflects the fact that some of the best power banks can hold a significant amount of charge – quite a bit more than a full camera battery’s worth.
While many patents are filed that don’t ever see the light of day as consumer technology, this is another encouraging sign that Canon is continuing to innovate when it comes to its camera division.
The firm has been one of the most innovative companies in the world, in terms of patents filed, for a good few years now. In 2020 alone, the US patent office granted Canon a whopping 3,226 patents. Looking at these patents can give a real hint as to what the future could hold for the world of cameras – we’ve seen things like a touchpad shutter button, or more recently, a clip-on telephoto lens for a smartphone.
It’s great seeing Canon continue to innovate like this – long may it continue!
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