Microsoft to Acquire Multi-Touch Pioneer Perceptive Pixel

[Youclay]

Thank you. I have always wondered what Jeff Han contributions were vs. Fingerworks. The timeline image is an eye-opener.

This is correct. Fingerworks did some very extensive fingertip motion research. Perceptive Pixel, to me, was more about presenting and marketing fairly well known gestures in a very nice way.

Perceptive Pixel, btw, is the reason why Apple failed to get a trademark on "Multi-Touch". They almost got it, but then Jeff Han found out and wrote an 80 page challenge to the USPTO explaining why the term was already generic.

A pretty good timeline of multi-touch can be found in graphic below taken from a rather large and interesting presentation.

(Click on the thumbnail below to see full size.)

 

[kdarling]

Thank you. I have always wondered what Jeff Han contributions were vs. Fingerworks. The timeline image is an eye-opener.

You're welcome!

Yet even that timeline is missing a stupendous amount of touch work done for military, entertainment, enterprise and industrial purposes.

Touch friendly UIs date back decades in those fields:

• Factories / power plants / etc often use graphical diagrams of their processes that a supervisor can touch for status and control.
• Field workers have had touch handhelds with touch based UIs for a long time.
• Casinos embraced touchscreens two decades ago for the exact same reason that Jobs later brought up about having an onscreen keyboard: no need to change physical button labels if you flip between different games.

These target markets also often have R&D resources and contract prices that dwarf the mass consumer field. When someone is willing to pay $2000+ per device, you can use better equipment. (E.g. a touchscreen/LCD combination with an internal heater so it can work in deep freeze conditions. Or a glass capacitive screen even 30 years ago.)

 

[subsonix]

...the timeline starts in 1982, and Apple doesn't appear until more than ¾ of the timeline is over.

Apple bought Fingerworks in 2005 though, and with it, it's entire patent portfolio. Also, Apple never show concepts or unfinished products, so it's unknown how long they have really been involved and planned for the actual release of a finished product when the technology finally was ready.

 

[KnightWRX]

Apple bought Fingerworks in 2005 though, and with it, it's entire patent portfolio. Also, Apple never show concepts or unfinished products, so it's unknown how long they have really been involved and planned for the actual release of a finished product when the technology finally was ready.

Has as been pointed out many times though : Fingerworks patents and expertise mostly related to non-touchscreens. Think trackpads.