Jan 07
Patently Apple reported that today the US Patent & Trademark Office published details of an Apple patent application related to new multi-touch screen technology.
The patent focuses on “displays in which capacitive elements of the pixels…also form part of a touch sensing system that senses touch events on or near the display.” It also addresses the use of “pixels with dual-function capacitive elements that translate into fewer moving parts and/or processor steps that could deliver thinner, brighter displays.”
The new displays will utilize low temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) technology which according to LG:
“LTPS provides more than a 100 times faster TFT mobility than the amorphous silicon(a-Si) technology.”
Of course these are only partial details of the patent application revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office and we can only speculate on its use without all the details, but it does seem that this new patent could be leveraged by Apple’s forthcoming iSlate tablet to improve both the quality and performance of the display, as well as possibly the user interface experience.
Tagged with: capacitive • iSlate • LTPS • multi-touch • patent
Jan 05
Engadget released today that in 2008 Apple filed a 3D UI patent which was just published last month. It addresses the manipulation of 3D objects on a multi-touch screen.
“[The patent] seems more concerned with the core mechanics of using multiple fingers at once to get around in 3D space and manipulate 3D objects…”
Rendering of 3D Objects on Multi-Touch Screen
In the past Jobs had expressed little interest in introducing a tablet unless Apple could reinvent the concept, bringing a new user experience to the public. Adding 3D depth to the multi-touch UI might create the subtle sense for users that they are navigating inside an iSlate world of 3D geometric icons representing applications and files, perhaps with shadows covering nearby icons as they are moved, etc. We can only speculate at this point how this patent may be used in the iSlate or whether it is used at all, but it certainly does help capture our imagination as to what the iSlate’s UI might be like… think Minority Report.
Tagged with: 3D • iSlate • multi-touch • patent
Dec 26
The latest from Apple Insider suggests that Apple has a patent that they could use on their rumored tablet to create a subtle form of a keyboard. This patent provides for a multitouch tactile keyboard by using an articulating frame to raise bumps on the otherwise flat surface; this in turn facilitates typing without keys. Such an application would certainly be a new feature that would differentiate Apple’s product from competitors.
Tagged with: bumps • keyboard • tactile
Subscribe
