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Use Both Hands - Touchscreen Patent Emerges

J Keirn-Swanson — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:50:12 -0500

You've got tech vendors and unnamed sources leaking like mad various tidbits about the hardware and software specs, while publishers and content providers suggest a whole new market share for Apple to conquer. Then you've got this.

In a recently revealed patent application, we learn that Apple is seeking protection for touchscreen technologies that contain "unprecedented integration of typing, resting, pointing, scrolling, 3D manipulation, and handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer input device." The level of detail and particularity involved in what the patent envisions goes beyond theoretical, in our opinion, and walks right up to the door of tech specs.

For instance, note the level of specificity in the accompanying flow chart below:

Source: AppleInsider

The document makes pretty clear that Apple envisions a device that not only allows for the same kind of touchscreen interaction as the iPhone, but an expanded and far more complex touch response architecture. Are two fingers touching at the same time? What about more than two fingers? Are the multiple fingers moving as part of a multi-finger command or is it simply all the fingers moving at once in sync, as in pulling your hands away from the screen or picking up the tablet with all fingers touching it? Are the hand gestures decelerating, and if so does that indicate a cancellation of the original command request?

While many reports have suggested that the rumored tablet might not be designed to compete in the netbook market, Apple clearly envisions a device that integrates a touch screen keyboard, the patent showing hands in clear typing position. Likewise, much of the documentation is specifically about typing. The document also goes in to detail about the touchscreen's adaptability to hand gesture commands, addressing the lack of need for a stylus or a mouse or really any kind of peripheral device for on-screen controls.

While the patent application gives partial credit to Fingerworks, a company Apple bought up during the quest to deliver the iPhone, the essential two-handedness of the patent points to newer, larger technologies than the iPhone's screen real estate would allow. Two-handed typing on-screen also rules out the previously mentioned 7" screen, as such a size would involve crowding the users' hands together in what can only be considered a non-ergonomic fashion. A 10.7-inch touch screen is only fractionally smaller than the space necessary for the standard iMac keyboard.

As far as smoking guns go, we'd have to rank this pretty high up there.

2 More Patents: Haptic Feedback and RFID Antenna

Arvind Srinivasan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:43:50 -0500

And we thought Apple scoffed at the Blackberry Storm’s haptic feedback. Guess not, because Apple has filed a patent that not only recognizes the limitations of a purely smooth touchscreen (can’t see what you are pressing), but shows haptic display technology as the solution.

The patent describes a grid of *big word alert* piezoelectronic actuators that would be activated on command. Now, if you are like us and don’t spend excessive amounts of time on Wikipedia, you probably don’t know what this means. Essentially, the touchscreen would have different surfaces such that the user would be able to feel buttons, while maintaining the no-button approach that Steve Jobs adores.

This could take the form of playback buttons (next song, previous song, pause), and even a haptic keyboard, which could enable touch typing. The good thing about the haptic feedback is that it would be completely programmable, so it could take different forms in different applications.

In another patent described in the same MacRumors article, Apple details an RFID reader integrated in the touchscreen, with the RFID antenna placed in the touchscreen panel itself. RFID tags, if you aren’t familiar with them, are becoming increasingly prevalent as tracking devices for products, key entry for security systems, and several other mainstream products.

Would you be excited about haptic feedback on your phone, and would you ever use RFID scanning to keep track of your robot army? Let us know in the comments.

Fingerprints on iPhones May Become Useful

Arvind Srinivasan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:24:12 -0500

The iPhone is notorious for picking up fingerprints like the FBI at a homicide scene. Now, they might finally be put to good use. Apple has filed a patent (We know, today is patent day), exposed by AppleInsider, that shows fingerprint signatures being used to trigger certain events.

Instead of relying on gestures to evoke certain actions, like skipping ahead in a playlist, a fingerprint sensor could trigger the same thing when touched by a certain person in a certain place. Potentially, this could open the door for user identification technology similar to the fingerprint sensors on PCs that we have all made fun of at some point (and remapped to our own fingers), that allow you to bypass password entry with a swipe of your finger.

That said, Apple could still give all of us the finger (pun intended) and omit any such technology from future product releases. With the number of patents they file, one can only imagine engineers do most of them just for funsies.

Apple Going the Way of the Wiimote?

Arvind Srinivasan — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:34:03 -0500

Apple remotes are noted for their simplicity. After all, they have less buttons than TV remote. Now, they are about to become even simpler.

Apple has filed a patent that shows a 3D motion remote that you would be able to control by pointing at items on the screen. It would communicate with Apple TVs via IR, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi.

Furthermore, this magical remote-like device could include non-traditional input methods.This would most likely entail a touchscreen, given Apple's fetish for aluminum and glass, which would dramatically improve the utility of the remote. For example, searching for a movie in the iTunes store with the remote would no longer require a 20-minute excercise in frustration.

As always, there is no guarantee this will ever come to fruition. We think touchscreen remotes are too low-tech for Apple. A more likely candidate would be a remote CONTROLLED BY YOUR BRAIN.