Apple Patent: Laser-etched, touch input

[miles01110]

Posted on Ars yesterday, and no thread on it???? LTD why have you been slacking??

Apple has applied for a patent on "invisible" touch input sensors that can be activated and displayed on demand. These input sensors would remain completely invisible until needed, then appear as if by magic—though the invisibility is really an extension of techniques Apple developed for the unibody MacBook Pros.

Link to patent application.

Personally I don't think this is going to work out as well as people think. The laser-etched holes would have to be really small in order to be invisible. The laser-etched holes in the current unibody MBPs that show the battery charge are plainly visible to me from at least 2 feet away.

 

[DoFoT9]

hmm idk, lasers beams can be pretty darn small!

 

[Lone Deranger]

How about the holes made for the webcam's activation light on the MBP's? They're quite inconspicuous until the LED comes on.

 

[DoFoT9]

How about the holes made for the webcam's activation light on the MBP's? They're quite inconspicuous until the LED comes on.

i just shone a light on the green light, it looks pretty darn big, roughly the size of the speaker grill on my CD MBP. 0.5mm?

it would need to be <0.001mm to be unseen!

 

[*LTD*]

Posted on Ars yesterday, and no thread on it???? LTD why have you been slacking??



Link to patent application.

Personally I don't think this is going to work out as well as people think. The laser-etched holes would have to be really small in order to be invisible. The laser-etched holes in the current unibody MBPs that show the battery charge are plainly visible to me from at least 2 feet away.

Good find!

I've been a little busier than usual with RL stuff.

I'm glad to see others on top of things, though. 😉