Apple seeks patents for 3D and ‘physics metaphor’ gesture controls

a Deep in the stodgy bowels of the USPTO sits a folder full of Apple patent applications specifically for gesture controls . A few more pages from that expanding tome were just made public, and the concepts unearthed are certainly thought-provoking. The first involves using a proximity sensor in addition to the touch panel to register gestures in 3D. For example, you could use three fingers to mark out the corners of a triangle on the screen and then “pull up” and pinch to create a pyramid for use in a CAD application. The second idea involves gestures based on intuitive “physics metaphors” that are recognized using motion sensors. So instead of navigating menus in order to start a file transfer between an iPhone and iPad, the user could arrange the desired files on the phone’s screen and then pretend to “pour” them onto the tablet — an idea which rather reminds of the funky Project Blox . Oh, did we just make a Cupertino lawyer twitch ? Apple seeks patents for 3D and ‘physics metaphor’ gesture controls originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Posted by on July 11, 2011. Filed under News, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.