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Patent: Multisided Full Screen Touch iPod
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You no longer look at them with your eyes, but you do still sense what you're pressing through touch. Without either looking at what you're pressing or without the device providing tactile feedback, you can't accurately use a control.
i've been trying to hold my nano with this whole screen on the back idea, and i actually think it's doable. it would take some getting used to, but i'd definitely buy one. - i didn't see it in the drawings, but i would think that the typical placement for the headphone jack could be in the way if you have to hold it sideways - but i really wouldn't want the cord jutting out from the middle of the thing either. hopefully they'll include bluetooth headphones.
I'll have to use this before making an opinion. Just by looking at the patent application, it looks hard to look at the screen and do the input on the other side. Mice and the scroll wheel on iPods are fairly simple. For mice, you know that if you move the mouse left, the cursor would go left. Go right and the cursor goes right. So you don't have to look at the mouse. For scroll wheels, go clockwise and you go down/right in the list. Go counter-clockwise and it goes up/left. From what I gather from this, it might be hard to know whether you're pressing the right area. You might think you're touching one area, but your fingures might be a few tenths of inch off and select something different. I did gymnastics in high school and there are a few release moves on high bar. Release moves are where you let go of the bar, do something like a back flip and recatch the bar. Some release moves have blind catches meaning you can't see the bar when you catch it. Blind catches and this seem very similar. A gymnast performing a blind catch might be inches off and that could mean the difference between catching the bar, falling on the matt or falling onto the bar. Very dangerous. It would help to see where you're actually pressing. Also, when it says that your finger may touch multiple inputs, what difference does it make if the input is on the screen or not?
If there are so many problems with having the touchscreen on the front then why are they making the iphone that way?
Nobody Noticed!
I can't believe nobody has noticed that in the patent picture one of the screens is a phones keypad, and a keyboard (not qwerty). I bet anything that this was something they were working on before they got into multi-touch for the iPhone and I bet it will never see the light of day. Of course the new iPod is going to be multi-touch just like the iPhone.
I thought this was stupid at first, then I humbled myself enough to pick up my iPod and see what it would be like, and it wasn't that bad, BUT apparently they found multi-touch to be better. You think if this idea were better that they would put it on the iPod and not the iPhone? Of course not.
I can't believe nobody has noticed that in the patent picture one of the screens is a phones keypad, and a keyboard (not qwerty). I bet anything that this was something they were working on before they got into multi-touch for the iPhone and I bet it will never see the light of day. Of course the new iPod is going to be multi-touch just like the iPhone.
I thought this was stupid at first, then I humbled myself enough to pick up my iPod and see what it would be like, and it wasn't that bad, BUT apparently they found multi-touch to be better. You think if this idea were better that they would put it on the iPod and not the iPhone? Of course not.
I don't believe in patents, but this would indeed make an iPhone nano possible. Just watch the January keynote, Steve Jobs had like 3 or 4 mistypes on the big iPhone. You can't make that design any smaller. It's either this backrub touchscreen (where what your fingertip is doing is not hidden by your finger) or no touchscreen at all if you want a small iPhone (and that's the one I'll be holding out for).
I thought the same way about the first iPod's navigation system (e.g. it being clunky), but I do think Apple does a ver good job at implementing a controls for their hardware.
Well, I just picked up mine after reading the description. Using my right hand. Thumb goes along the right edge, last three fingers along the left. The pointer finger flits around the surface of the back.
I think the comfortable range on the back surface, though, is about 80% of the width and height of the unit, with "blind" spots along the right edge (next to the thumb) and the bottom edge and bottom-left corner. So, I'd map that slightly smaller rectangle to 95% of the front display, perhaps leaving just a few pixels around the edges controlled with the last 10% of each edge. Also, I think any precision movements would be more well suited to the "top" half of the device because of this, so I'd expect the scroll wheel to move up to the top instead of the bottom.
Is it really so hard for you guys to do? That seems very natural to me, and no less ergonomic than trying to do fine motor movements with my thumb on the current iPod.
I sit squarely in the "brilliant" camp. It's a classic Apple design. It'd be nice to see it get to production.
Given that there are "skin" cases which cover the touch pads of current iPods and seem to work rather well ... would the type of touch pad required for this (sensing relative pressure as well as touch) also work with a properly-designed plastic covering? Or are the current touch pads pressure-sensitive?
Anyone know?
Would make cases much less diverse, perhaps, though. They'd all need a fully clear front and a fully touch-transmissive back. The sides could be leather or neoprene or rhinestone-studded to one's heart's desire, though. I suppose you might also be able to color the back surface to put some sort of design on it too, but materials-wise you'd be pretty limited.
I don't think so. Hold the current iPod in your hand, and use your index finger to carress the back of the unit. Move it up/down then left to right, pretty natural. Doing circles is not bad but takes getting used to it.
I think this patten has potential. However I think it maybe to block others from doing a similat interface.
The longer Apple prevents others, the longer it will have the market and the more time it has to innovate again and leap once more over the competition.
Just my opinion.
Use your brain. Of course, the iphone will have smudges!
What, did you think a tiny pair of windshield wipers with spray was going to automatically appear and wipe the screen after each use?
Sorry there is a patent on that one.
Bingo. This patent is to stop others from getting this type of functionality and making it dificult for them to inovate. Mean time Apple has time to leap the competition again.
I find it amazing considering just two days ago I was thinking of an ipod with the click wheel on the back allowing a full screen, but I didn't think it would work.
hold it like you hold your phone and with a slight adjustment your index finger is free to control a rear side scroll wheel. Of course the scroll action would run backwards but software would flip it for you.
typing text?? that is more of a challenge
D'oh!
You got me there!(Though you called a click-wheel, whereas I called the touch-pad!
)Ok, so 3 cases of "prior art". There's no way Apple can be awarded this patent... unless they were to have a Time Machine..... wait a minute!!eleventy1!!
I hate new designs.
Change is not good
if it anint broke dont fix it!
Somewhere deep in Apple's R&D building, a puppy just died...
Ok, so in a wide/hotdog position you hold the ipod with your right hand. I can only reach a small part of the back of my iPod with my index finger. The patent talks about going beyond just scroll wheal functionality. Typing would be almost impossible not to mention slow since you cant use two hands. Show me a picture if you think I've got it wrong.
I think holding the iPod along the boarder of the screen with one hand and using your free hand to operate the touch controls on the back may work OK, or hold it with just your thumbs and then you have pretty good movement but it seems kind of easy to drop in that position. This patent still seems very unlikely to me.