Never say the USPTO doesn't have impeccable timing: on the eve of
Apple's tablet launch (and on the very day
we finally realized that we've been looking at the same set of Apple patent images in loosely-related filings since 2004), the Patent Office has granted Apple some 13 patents, including #7,653,883 for a proximity-sensing multitouch screen. That's right,
granted -- as in, Apple can file a lawsuit if others infringe these ideas now. (Usually we just look at patent applications, which have no legal weight.) The proximity-sensing screen is obviously the most interesting of the bunch, since it's actually related to those same Apple multitouch patents we've been seeing forever -- it describes a touchscreen that can detect when an object (like a finger or a stylus) is close to the screen but not touching it, and then offer up context-dependent controls based on what it detects. Imagine seeing window controls when your hand gets close to the top of the window -- it solves the problem of your finger covering the display. Of course, we have no way of knowing whether it'll be in whatever device is announced tomorrow -- but it's certainly interesting. There's also a fun little design patent granted on the external design of the third-gen iPod nano, and then 11 other patents covering things like color management, bandwidth detection, and, uh, "Method and Apparatus for Selectively Switching IC Ports to Card Slots Through the use of Three Switches per Switch Group." Riveting, we know. Check the full breakdown at the read link.
posted January 27th 2010 7:37AM
today is tomorrow...if you live in spain like me
@EI8HT Same here in Greece. For a moment i thought the tablet would be announced on Thursday :-D
@AnastasiosAntoniosToulkeridis
just greece??..I'm in India...it's going 2 launch at 11:30 IST :)
@samirotiv I'm just glad I live in GMT.. :)
Why does it always look like the figures in the patent applications are drawn by 5 year old kids?
@Dano900
Child slave labor...
Glad to hear no other can use this technology cos i don't think they can give a good finishing touch like Apple does. Can't wait.........
Great just great. Now when I read my newspaper at the urinal on the iTablet, I am going to have to worry about my Golden Shower Rod producing unintentional touches on my Tablet.
I'll be done with a whole book after I shake the dew off my Lilly.
Apple is making a tablet? Why hasn't anyone reported on this yet?
So, WACOM that has for years the Stylus and Finger proximity sensing should just fold-up and die? What bunch of loosers those people are in the Patent Office, surely it is Apple, they get to own everything, even if it belongs to others.
If WACOM takes this lying low, they should be kicked in their butts.
@iTrolls,
Yes, I have read and understood, and by calling people names you show you are a 'tard yourselves. People like you who have left their frontal lobes somewhere in the gutters make me sick.
Apple doesn't have absolute right on innovation. Proximity detection is proximity detection. It has been patented by other companies before Apple was granted a patent. It is idiots like you who try to tell the whole world Apple has invented something new that we've all been using for years. Grow up and get a life.
I had just convinced myself yesterday that I wasn't going to get this tablet yesterday. I'm having a hard time seeing why I need a device to bridge the gap between laptop and smartphone. However, if this thing runs a full version of Mac OS X and has a proximity sensing touch screen that allows you to do something similar to the Hollywood style gestures we've seen in sci-fi movies lately (obviously much more scaled down though) , I'm so going to get one of these things.
You can't patent "proximity sensing". You can only patent the mechanism in which you achieve proximity sensing. So, as long as another company uses a different mechanism to achieve their proximity sensing touchscreen, Apple can't touch them. That doesn't mean they won't sue. It just means they won't win.
WHAT! IT'S RUNNING WINDOW(S)?
Do love a nice patent pic, but why's it always white folk in them?
Umm I had a Sony tablet PC with a Pentium 3 like 8? years ago that had a proximity sensing touch screen, albeit it required a stylus.
@Atkins
So it's not like "wow, great idea Apple!"
I take it this will be another US only patent if everybody before them does not file suit including lets see Nokia, HTC has a phone that does the same thing in Taiwan, Sony Erickson, and a few local computer firms. So as usually we Americans get the shaft of corporate sperm.
Someone at Apple REALLY can't draw hands, but at least it doesnt look like Zoidburg this time
Patents are not bad when used properly to protect intellectual endeavors and investments in R&D. They become annoyting only when the inventing company sits on its laurels and halts the entire industry by limiting others to use a said technology or method, by asking huge royalties.
This patent makes sense because of the paint splatter that is the main logo for the event. I can foresee a paint throwing gesture using the proximity sensors.