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Apple Developing Backlit Trackpad?

This is great!

A multi-touch trackpad would be great! Can you imagine having your dock posted on your trackpad? Then, all you do is touch the icon on the touchpad which application, stack (with Leopard), space, etc., that you want to launch? And also an icon for Dashboard to pull up widgets, etc? A separate "pull up" screen available within each app for when you need digital keyboard, ability to pinch, flick, move on the screen, select, switch documents or switch apps. And a "glow effect" when each application would normally be "bouncing" in the dock would be a great visual - new mail, software update, download complete, etc. My work would be so much more efficient! This could very well replace the keyboard if the trackpad is large enough and done well. Perhaps part of the delay in Leopard is so that all of this touch technology can be incorporated properly into each app in the final version of Leopard. Either that, or Apple could do this via a software update. And of course, they would need to update their hardware too.

Of course, the phone app, including visual vm, could also be included!

The iphone is proving a success for text entry by those who have used it. If the trackpad has a screen even larger than the iphone, text entry on the trackpad could be very easy. It would have an auto-correct, and you would need to "trust" the trackpad, but soon you would be whizzing away!

The multi-touch trackpad makes so much sense - even if multi-touch large computer screens were affordable, ergonomically it doesn't make sense to lift your arms to touch your computer screen all day, nor to look down to view a multi touch computer tablet all day.

Go apple! :apple: I am ready for a multi-touch touchpad on a MBP! :)
 
Macrumors said:


A recent patent filed by Apple suggests the company is continuously looking for ways to improve user input devices. In this case, Apple describes an "improved feedback mechanism for touch pads", including "devices capable of illuminating the touch sensitive surface of the touch pad" and "methods for providing visual feedback at the touch pad."



Raw Data: Patent Application 20070152977

Article Link
Click to expand...


Umm, this just sounds like a patent for the way the letters enlarge when you type on the iphone keyboard so you know which letter you typed.

----
iMac G5, MacBook C2D, 80Gig iPod Video, 8Gig iPhone, AMD Turion 64 laptop XP Pro, 2.8 GHz Pentium XP Pro, Atari 520ST :p
 
The first thing I thought of was the light flash the pause/play button does in the iPod area of iPhone to transition. I don't own one, and this was the only area that I could think of that has this. Feel free to expand.
 
Clive At Five said:
What sort of visual feedback could be given if your finger is covering up the point of contact?!

And secondly, who looks at their trackpad as they're computing? Not me.

The only useful part of this patent, I think, would be gently lighting the perimeter of the pad, as the MBP does the letters of the keyboard. It would make finding the track pad easier. Otherwise, I see it as mostly useless.

Prove me wrong, Apple. I'm curious.

-Clive
Click to expand...

What makes you think you can patent illuminating something? Notice the drawings show quite a bit more than simple illuminating.

And btw folks, trackpads are already 3 finger multitouch.
 
arn said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A543a Safari/419.3)



I disagree. The iPhone is full of visual feedback that would otherwise not be obvious what was going on if you didnt have it.

Arn
Click to expand...

I agree, in that redundant feedback and visual feedback on a screen make sense, but I think it makes very little sense for a traditional trackpad. Are you actually going to receive the feedback? probably not. The visual feedback on a computer is the arrow on the screen. Unless the trackpad is the screen, it would just be distracting.

I forget that my powerbook has a backlit keyboard, because all it does is look cool and drain the battery, and I turned it off long ago. I can see what I type on the screen, and it's far more effective than looking at the keyboard.
 
Wow, for a company that stuck with a one button mouse for 20+ years Apple is suddenly all about innovative input.

I got new a MacBook two weeks ago after five wonderful years with a G4 PowerBook and a number of other macs since 1990, how did I ever live without two finger scrolling and two finger tap contextual menus. These are wonderful implementations of common features on PC laptops but much more elegant and useful.

I can't wait to see what Apple will do next.
 
arn said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/1A543a Safari/419.3)



I disagree. The iPhone is full of visual feedback that would otherwise not be obvious what was going on if you didnt have it.

Arn
Click to expand...

You look at an iphone screen while you touch it, theres no point in looking at a track pad. If they are going to provide visual feedback then it should be on the screen where the mouse cursor is since that is what you are looking at, like what Vista does with its tablet pc functionality. Having the trackpad glow and flash will just be distracting and a waste of battery life/money.
 
going back to the (now disputed) iPhone nano concept, wouldn't the application of this to the touchwheel interface provide an excellent means of giving feedback when you are dialing a number?
Apple's not stupid, they know that the key to getting into the cellphone market is by having an inexpensive handset without all the flashy features. this on an ipod-mini sized phone with illuminated scrollwheel seems perfect.
 
Damn, from the pictures it looks like only people with fat fingers will be able to use it. Oh well... ;)
 
wHo_tHe said:
Bingo.

Future Apple laptops will clamshell two screens. They will eventually try to get us off of keyboards altogether, as keyboards represent one of the last true mechanical components of a computer and a common point of failure.
Click to expand...

That would be sweet. Especially if it can play DS games too :D
 
I always knew that would be a good idea. I remember when my dad first got his iPod he said "why wont this part light up?"
 
I'm not sure how useful this idea is yet. I've found Apple trackpads (and the iPod scroll wheel) to be very reliable in registering taps/drags so I don't know why visual feedback is in any way necessary - unless of course they're planning on adding further gestures which might be more complex.

That said, one place I'd love to see it (but we probably won't see it) is in Boot Camp. For some reason, the MBP trackpad seems far, far less accurate in Windows, so I'd love to see some visual feedback from the trackpad to see what it thinks I'm doing! ;)

It'd at least be visually appealing if they put a screen in there too. You could have little ripples around your finger tips as you tap, or waves as you drag. Or - more usefully - you could even display controls on the trackpad screen to manipulate with your fingers (a knob to turn, a slider to slide etc.)
 
stainlessliquid said:
You look at an iphone screen while you touch it, theres no point in looking at a track pad.
Click to expand...

You're using circular reasoning - you don't look at the trackpad because there's nothing to see. Therefor there's no point in putting something to see there.

If there was something to see, you'd start to look at it.

We all know that if Apple implement this, they will more than likely make a good job of it.
 
Looking at the patent application, this seems to be mainly intended to allow you to recreate the Michael Jackson video for Billie Jean with your fingers (cool!) Apologies to anyone under the age of 30...

I do worry about the health implications. Those fingers look grotesquely swollen to me.
 
Thanks for posting the pictures. I could see the iPod one looking cool, though it would be largely irrelevant. Again, who looks at the clickwheel while they are scrolling through songs? Not I.

-Clive
 
How about an ultra portable with the bottom being an optical glass screen with LCD keyboard and trackpad area? The letters glow faintly until you strike them with fingers. With each touch, the glow flashes to another colour and there is a faint electrical pulse emmitted to your finger. Wouldn't that same keyboard surface be useful in another mode as a multi-touch gesture pad for scrolling web pages, moving documents about your HD heirarchy, editing photos, music and websites, etc? Imagine gesturing for your keyboard to come up to name an audio file you just created, tapping a point on it near the tail and pinching it to fade it out. Then, you could pull it forward to align it with a drum track you'd recorded earlier, adding a guitar part to it.

The furure's so bright, gotta wear...
 
Haha - this is to enable apple to put the entire display on the trackpad...

Backlighting LCD's anyone? :D
 
dontmatter said:
I forget that my powerbook has a backlit keyboard, because all it does is look cool and drain the battery, and I turned it off long ago. I can see what I type on the screen, and it's far more effective than looking at the keyboard.
Click to expand...

Maybe for you but I do work quite late at night and a backlit keyboard is the only thing missing on my PB... So I can see (even if I don't need it yet) a backlit trackpad...
 
Yeah but gestures on the trackpad could really prove convenient. I am already really liking the two finger scroll and right click. If they implemented application specific controls (like a clickwheel for iTunes), Apple could really be going somewhere...
 
This is just too cool. Where do they come up with these ideas?

In a related note Bill Gates has promised important updates to Notepad, Minesweeper, and Xune in the next fortnight. :p
 
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