Apple files patent application for pressure-sensitive touchscreen technology
By Will Park on Monday, October 8th, 2007 at 6:13 PM PST In Announcements, Apple, Technologies, iPhone
Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s all about touchscreen/multi-touch screens, and it looks like they want to redefine the touchscreen experience in the same way that the iPhone redefined the mobile phones user experience. The Cupertino-based company has filed with the USPTO for a patent application that would add pressure sensitivity to a touchscreen. Apple thinks that adding pressure-sensitivity to the touchscreen will add “a new element of control.”
A spring membrane could be embedded under the touchscreen layers to detect “force information [that] may be used as another input dimension for purposes of providing command and control signals to an associated electronic device.”
Whether or not the technology is compatible with Apple’s multi-touch-enabled iPhone is not yet clear. Here’s to hoping that the next-gen iPhone will rock a pressure-sensitive multi-touch display.
