Published Thursday by the US Patent and Trademark Office, a patent filing dubbed "Transparent Texting" proposes a feature that would continuously capture and display video images of the environment ahead of you via your phone's rear-facing camera. The display would be transparent, letting you see the video in the background while you text in the foreground.
The transparency may also extend to the bubbles that display your messages in an IM chat. Such transparent bubbles would let you peek at more of the video in the background. The actual text would remain opaque so that you can easily see it.
Of course, there is another solution to this problem. Don't text while you're walking! But in these days when everyone has to be glued to their mobile devices while they're doing something else, Apple's proposal could save texters from bumping into that nasty tree or falling into that open manhole cover.
Article by Lance Whitney
