apple patent hoverAt the moment Apple’s latest touchscreen technology comes in the form of Force Touch. This involves the user pressing down on the touchscreen a bit more forcefully in order to call up certain menus or functions that are not normally displayed. It’s an interesting idea that has also been translated into the trackpads for Apple’s newer MacBooks.

However it seems that Apple is also investigating the idea of something completely the opposite of Force Touch. The patent, which was discovered by AppleInsider, talks about the creation of a touch panel in which users can interact with it by hovering their hands or fingers over the display as opposed to actually having to touch it.

This isn’t the first time that a company has come up with such an idea, although as Apple notes in the patent, the current motion sensing devices available in the market aren’t as reliable or as accurate, thus making the incorporation of gestures a bit difficult. Now we’re not sure what Apple has planned for this, but it could open up a whole new way to interact with their devices.

Imagine performing a bunch of commands either by Force Touch or by hovering your hands over the display and using gestures instead. This patent is notable due to the fact that Apple had acquired PrimeSense in 2013, the same company responsible for the initial technology used by the Microsoft Kinect sensor.

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