To say that Apple does hold a fair number of patents does not do it justice, and today we learned of yet another patent by the company behind the wildly successful iPhone, where this patent would see the inclusion of a proximity sensor layer within the iPhone’s display. In other words, one would be able to enjoy a slew of new interactions in the future iPhone via hovering gestures. Of course, this is not a new idea, and Apple themselves have had a patent that described touch panels which can sense hover gestures in the past.
This time around, it seems that this patent deals with the integration of small, infrared sensors within a multi-touch display. These pixels will emit infrared light and monitor reflected signals, and should the infrared light bounce back, then it registers it as a finger located above the display area. It looks as though this patent would work better on an iPhone display than on other Apple products, what do you think? After all, Apple has introduced a new layer of interactions with 3D touch before, delivering pressure-sensitive gestures – with hovering gestures possibly being in the next generation of devices. It looks like we will just have to adopt a wait-and-see posture for what Apple has in store for the future.
Filed in . Read more about Patent. Source: techcrunch