DailyTech - Apple Files for Gesture Input Patent

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Software Apple Files for Gesture Input Patent
Tuan Nguyen (Blog) - February 2, 2006 6:15 PM

9 comment(s) - last by PsiJon.. on Feb 7 at 10:58 AM

Picking up California

Apple files for patents relating to advanced gesture input methods. This could be the beginning of future tablet devices from Apple

Apple today filed for a patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office for designing devices that accept full input from touch. The patent details methods where a user can simply control everything that is done traditionally using a mouse, by finger. Apple calls the method gestures, which expand on current technology to allow finger motions to work in even a 3D space.

Gestures are already being used in some areas such as web browsing. The Opera browser for instance, can accept mouse gestures to navigate pages. Basic gestures are already being used in Apple's OS X on its line of notebooks. The patent is very extensive and covers a wide range of gestures from zooms, rotations, knobs, panning and more. Some gestures will even allow a user to pick up items such as objects and icons.

From the patent:

3. A computer implemented method for processing touch inputs, said method comprising: reading data from a touch sensitive device, the data pertaining to touch input with respect to the touch sensitive device, and the touch sensitive device having a multipoint capability; converting the data to a collection of features; classifying the features; grouping the features into one or more feature groups; calculating key parameters of the feature groups; and associating the feature groups to user interface elements on a display.

4. A method for recognizing a zoom gesture made on a multipoint touch sensitive device, comprising: detecting the relative locations of a first object and a second object at the same time; detecting a change in the relative locations of said first and second object; generating a zoom signal in response to said detected change.

See the entire patent from Apple here. Thanks to Anthony Hin for the notice.