If you’ve followed Nokia related news religiously, you’ll be aware of the fact that a couple of years back the Finnish manufacturer really had a hard time stopping its new products from being leaked before they were even announced. Full reviews of new devices would be up online well before the official announcement, never mind the launch date. This was obviously a big problem for Nokia, one that they fixed with a rather ingenious system that they’re now looking to patent. Today, Nokia filed a patent application titled “Method an apparatus for providing product source leak identifications.”
Before a new device is released to the masses, a manufacturer has several prototypes undergoing testing, and its not exactly hard to keep track of such prototypes. What Nokia details is that it will bake in discreet and unique UI elements in each prototype. These elements could be subtle things such as clock hands in different directions or misplaced car in navigation app icon. When images of any such prototype are leaked, Nokia simply has to check its database to identify the unique UI elements and it will know the source of the leak. It is not known for sure whether Nokia has currently implemented this system, but one thing is for sure, product leaks have drastically been reduced since 2010. No longer do full reviews of upcoming Nokia devices get published before they are to be announced. This is quite an impressive system, wouldn’t you say?
[Image via Unwiredview]
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