Apple playing 'chord' patterns with future devices?
Apple could have a lot more in mind for the multitouch user interface found on the iPhone.
A recent Apple patent filing spotted by Macsimum News, among others, covers technology described as a "multitouch gesture dictionary." It's basically a way of assigning certain tasks, such as opening an application, to a series of gestures and "chords," according to the patent application.
Right now, iPhone users navigate by dragging a finger up, down, left or right to scroll through contacts, music or e-mail. Zooming in or out of a Web page requires two fingers that either pinch or, uh, do whatever the opposite of pinching is.
A recent patent application filed by Apple could expand on the multitouch input on both the Macbook Pro and the iPhone.
(Credit: Apple)The patent filing describes additional gestures that could be set by the user to do whatever they like. This could involve just a single finger, or two fingers dragged in succession, or an actual chord of several fingers applied to the touch screen in a certain way. I'm thinking a cross between the iPhone, Guitar Hero, and the way you can set the trackpad on a Macbook or Macbook Pro to scroll through documents or bring all applications to the front by dragging a finger around the trackpad.
CrunchGear reported earlier this week that Apple is planning to introduce new laptops in October that incorporate multitouch input gestures beyond what you can already do on a Macbook or Macbook Pro. So perhaps the technology described in the patent filing is already in the works.
But the application also talks about other input methods, such as by hovering your hand above a sensor; by using force-sensitive sensors that might do different things, depending on how hard you push; and by using voice-activated commands. The standard Apple patent-filing disclaimer applies: technologies described in patent filings don't always make it into future products; they are just a glimpse at what Apple may be considering for future products.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
Whatever dude!
Name one actual game system or game that did this or does today!
http://www.fingerworks.com/MacNTouch_product.html
I used it with my laptop's touchpad for a while a few years ago. The interface into FireFox was slick for going back a page opening links in new tabs etc.
It was only cool for a few days and I got rid of it ;) I got annoyed of accidentally doing something while trying to scroll down a page and having it do some unexpected command lol
And if Apple is going to claim that using it on a touch screen interface is new and different from mouse gestures, I've seen videos of people who've run this from their touch screen LCD screens as well combined with Beryl.
- Existent gestures by other companies
- by andrewdownloader August 3, 2007 5:06 PM PDT
- Opera software, long time ago added a feature for its Browser, called mouse gestures. So you can do different commont tasks with just specific and easy mouse movements while holding the right button of the mouse. I hope apple don't steal those features as they use to steal other's ideas.
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(10 Comments)And Patent stolen things.
http://www.opera.com/products/desktop/mouse/
Opera use to take full advantage of available hardware to make browsing easy.