Earlier this year, we heard a slew of whispers promising a late winter launch for Microsoft’s Windows 8 tablets — there was even mention of a tab-specific OS. While it’s become clear that Redmond intends for its new operating system to run on multiple devices , insight into its tablet plans are still somewhat shrouded in mystery. From the looks of these gesture patents, however, it’s clear MS has been eyeing a dual-screen tablet future (hello Courier ). The recently published patents, not yet granted to the company, touch upon methods for off-screen input (read: bezel-based), but mainly focus on these multi-screen input options: dual tap, pinch and expand, hold and page-flip, hold and tap, and finally, bookmark hold. As you can glimpse from the image above, the patents handle simultaneous touch screen input, allowing a user the ability to swap images between screens, or even freeze a page on one side while continuing to browse on the other. By the looks of things, Sony might have some fierce competition in the multi-screen tablet market. Head to the source below to get a fuller look at these touch-based solutions. Microsoft gesture patents reveal possible dual-screen tablet focus originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink