In a recently published patent, it has been revealed that Apple could be (or was) looking into the idea of illuminated touchpads. This patent could be applied to existing MacBooks or the Magic Trackpad peripheral, and it basically illuminates the touchpad in relation to how it is being used. If you’ve used a MacBook or the Magic Trackpad before, or even the Magic Mouse, you’re probably aware that you are able to perform a variety of multi-touch gestures on it. This includes finger movements to scroll, zoom in, zoom out, move objects, and etc. Apple’s patent, dubbed the “Illuminated Touchpad”, has been described as a means to “give other feedback related to how the touch pad is being used.” Basically what this means is that if you were to use the touchpad as a cursor, it might illuminate in a certain way, while if you were to use two fingers with it for scrolling, it might light up in a different way. We expect this might come in handy for those times when you thought you had performed a certain gesture when in reality the touchpad might not have registered it. Given that this is a patent, it’s hard to say if Apple has plans to use it in their products in the future, or if it is merely an idea they’re sitting on that may never come to fruition, but what do you think? Does the idea of an illuminated touchpad sound appealing to you?
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