If you've recently watched movies about the end-of-the-world and mortal conditions, you've probably encountered people hiding in underground shelters with sensors (usually imaginary) to detect different types of danger, such as an earthquake, storm, or even radioactive material.

But Apple believes that for this you may only need your iPhone, where the latest patent the US company has acquired is a mobile device capable of detecting toxic gases.

The patent, which was first spotted by the Pashtelli Apple site, describes the future iDevices - the iPhone or perhaps the Apple clock - with a sensor to detect gas and warn the user if it is in a lethal environment, and this is useful if a gas leak occurs in your home or place Your business or even in the field.

One claim in the patent suggests that the sensor can detect toxic gases such as carbon monoxide (CO), NO2 and SO2, along with other gases such as methane (CH4) and nitrogen monoxide (NO).

This is not the first time Apple has submitted patent ideas for environmental instruments and sensors. Some of its earlier patents show that they have been dealing with this idea for some time, such as a device that has sensors to detect pressure, humidity and gases, Oxide.

A model for Apple Clock includes sensors to detect toxic gases by patent (Peachtly Apple)

The company believes, according to the Next Web site on technology, that these features may soon become strong selling points for its hardware products.

A few days ago, Apple reported that climate change could encourage sales of its phones and watches, as they provide functions that can be readily available during natural disasters, including emergency alerts, SOS signals, and easy-to-access flash light Even though what is mentioned is found in most modern devices.

While these features look amazing - according to the site - Apple will have to make sure that it works automatically, and does not need to search for the feature during an emergency. Of course, features such as gas detection are still in the patent phase, so it may take at least a few years before we see them in real devices, if they come to light.