Now that multi-touch is all the rage with Apple products and for good reason mind you, what can we expect next from Cupertino? Come October we should see slimmer MacBooks with a multi-touch touchpad. How about a mouse? That’d be the coolest thing wouldn’t it?
The latest patent filing from Apple shows us such a mouse that would relegate all ‘button’ functions into the magical multi-touch function putting your phalanges in the driver’s seat. It’s all very interesting and I’m excited to see when this will actually hit the market or if it ever does. I had a chance to fondle an iPhone over the weekend and I was impressed by the multi-touch functionality. Everything else about it was pretty abysmal, but I was still tempted to buy one just because I HAVE to have the latest and greatest. Ugh. Nothing will ever be the same.
A configurable mouse with an extended sensing surface, which provides the mouse a customizable, programmable or adaptable way of generating inputs, the mouse including an arbitrarily shaped grippable member having a 3D shape, a position detection mechanism that detects the movement of the mouse along a surface, a multipoint touch detection mechanism that detects one or more objects that are contacting or in close proximity to a substantially large portion of the grippable member, and a controller for processing signals generated by the position detection mechanism and multipoint touch detection mechanism.
Next step in Apple touch interface – multi-touch mouse [PC Joint]