Image via cnet.com //

Definitely gonna be a welcome feature…

Continuing to push the bounds and make the handling of their products easier for their millions of customers, Apple is working on a new way for iPhones and other Apple products to be capable of self cleaning. According to a new patent, they’re specifically hoping to harness heat and light to ensure the small sensors inside its products are free of “unwanted organic compounds”.

The applications note that handheld devices are naturally “prone to organic residue accumulation, such as skin oils, dirt, body hair, etc”, which collectively has a bigger effect than you’d think. Specifically, the accumulation of all that residue leads to interference signals and increase in errors in the sensors. Thus, they’re hoping to cultivate a system using ultraviolet light to “decompose organic contaminants inside product housing or near sensor packaging, in order to restore the clean environment needed for accurate readings of the integrated environmental sensors”, which is music to Apple users’ ears.

“Many mobile electronic devices are equipped with sensors and transducers that enable the devices to perform far more functionalities than communications,” an application read. “Further, smart mobile communication devices (e.g., smartphones and smartwatches) can be equipped with environmental sensors, such as pressure sensors, humidity sensors and gas sensors.”

Sounds pretty sick, and no doubt people all across the world will be super welcoming of this new feature. Fingers crossed we get to see it real soon…