Apple wants to light up your iPod touchpad?

Apple's been known to cover all its bases in the patent department, meaning this is certainly no guarantee we'll be seeing light-up iPods in the near future, but all the same we can't ignore the fact that a patent just popped up that has Apple postulating on backlit click wheels. While having a comet of light following your finger around the wheel is certainly interesting -- if potentially annoying -- things get more intriguing with the possibility of multitouch, but the patent isn't clear enough to tell if that's exactly what Apple is driving at. It's all well and good, but in these heady touchscreen days, are clickwheels slowly going the way of the dinosaur button?