Originally published on April 22, 2014

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A recently surfaced patent filing that lists Microsoft founder Bill Gates as one of its investors proposes a method for alerting people to unwanted snooping on their devices. This animation is based on the patent application and explains how such a system would work.

Gates is one of 16 co-investors in the Unauthorized Viewer Detection System and Method, which the patent filing describes a "system for detecting and responding to an intruding camera."

The United States patent application, which was filed on December 11, 2012, outlines a way to equip devices such as ATMs and smartphones with a technology that would scan for and respond to unwanted viewers or cameras by alerting the user or obscuring the contents on the screen.

However, the patent filing does not describe a particular technology, nor is there any word on when such as system would be available.

The patent filing explains that the system would work as follows:

Intruder analysis module scans the input for viewers, and classifies them as either intruders or safe viewers. Intruder analysis module also scans the input for cameras or camera-equipped devices (e.g., SLR cameras, camera-equipped cellular phones, point-and-shoot cameras, building-mounted camera systems, etc.). Intruder analysis module may classify an object as a viewer or camera using any number of detection algorithms. For example, intruder analysis module may apply motion detection algorithms on the sensor information, and may classify any moving object as a viewer. As another example, intruder analysis module may apply shape detection algorithms that scans the sensor information for lens (e.g., circular) shapes. As another example, intruder analysis mod