Apple Patents Indicate iPhone Innovations Far From Over
THURSDAY, JULY 2, 2009 -- Maybe it's the return of the Chief Elf Steve Jobs, or maybe it's because it's always Christmas in Cupertino, but Apple's iPhone development team seems particularly busy at the moment, giving us glimpses of all kinds of goodies in the works.
MacRumors and others report on Apple patents that: propose a refinement of the iPhone's touch screen using haptic technology; allow different fingers on your hand to be recognized by the iPhone and trigger specific commands; gives the iPhone screen the ability to read RFID tags.
Here's a glimpse of how you might use "fingerprint signatures" to control a future iPhone:
Haptic technology would allow you to access controls on the iPhone's touch screen using non-visual means -- such as through vibration or by the force you apply to a particular part of the screen. "As an example," writes Arnold Kim at MacRumors, "a display could include a virtual click wheel which vibrates at a different frequency as the center. Users could easily sense the difference and use the click wheel without having to look at it."
RFID (radio-frequency identification) technology involves placing a miniature computer chip on or in an object -- such as a passport, a product, a pet -- and encoding it with personalized information thus facilitating identification or authentication. Adding RFID capabilities will particularly appeal to businesses seeking to integrate the iPhone into their workflow. [PAB]
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