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Apple Patent: Visual Buttons?

An Apple Phone

shawnce said:
If Apple does make a phone it will likely be simple... likely close to what you state. It will likely have few physical inputs (no sliding out keyboards, etc.) but those physical input would likely be multitasked to support different operational modes of the device (phone, music player, etc.).

If they leveraged displays integrated with the physical inputs then the visual appearance of the physical input can change to reflect what it currently does based on the current operation mode.
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From older product releases, and similar articles and patents, it strikes me that Apple would release a phone that was just a display. The inputs could be in the form of touch screen pads, rather that a full touch screen. This would enable no form of sliding mechanisms, and the pad would change according to what mode the phone was in, similar to the above quote.

I feel that due to all of the recent patents and things, Apple seem to be investigating alternative input methods, so a voice, or touch screen ipod could be on the cards come Spring next year.

shawnce said:
I remember reading an article about a technology were sensors are embedded between pixels. The result would be a screen that could look at you. You would be able to look the person you are video chatting with in the eye.
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This also leads me to speculate that Apple could also have an idea to incorporte some form of Virtual Reality simulations into their new OS, Leopard, if they have developed a screen that could sense, like a camera. This could be one of the closely guarded secrets that Jobs mentioned in his Keynote at the WWDC 06. I mean, its a long shot, but I have my fingers crossed for things like this in the future. Matrix here we come!
 
Ryan5505 said:
I just installed Quicksilver....WOW!

Maybe we can see something similar in the next OSX
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We will. They announced at the WWDC keynote that you will acces applications with a few keystrokes in spotlight. You can already do it in tiger, but it's not good for everyday use. I guess they optimized it to be pretty much like quicksilver.
 
Multi-Touch User Interface

For the past year or so Apple has had some interesting patents that we have not seen bear fruit yet. They have had some interesting acquisitions that have gone unnoticed. (two in the multi-touch arena) See the link.

http://www.macobserver.com/columns/devilsadvocate/2006/20060815uis.shtml

If you remember they had that patent about piles (watch the videos of piles in action from the above url).

Apple has implemented multi-touch trackpad features, such as scrolling and right clicking through a mutli finger gesture.

I believe that Apple is building to release a new computer, the long fabled 'tablet' we have waited so long for. The only differenece is that tablets are horible and fit a very small niche.

Imagine a MackBook Pro like enclosure, with two displays. One in the traditional display spot, and another replacing the keyboard and trackpad on the base. When you open the device you have two displays, where the bottom one is used for a fully multi-touch interface and the top one for visulaization.

Now apple has achieved something ENTIRELY new that will carry a large pricetag and innovate. 3 things they like to do.

I will start the betting at the ship of Leopard for this new device/enclosure. Any takers?
 
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