Apple Granted Patent for Virtual Input Tools

Apple has been granted a patent today for their invention relating to a virtual input device. In one aspect, virtual coordinates of the virtual input device correlate to real coordinates on the physical input device. Dimensions of the physical input device are proportional to dimensions of the virtual input device, and interactive objects are presented in the virtual input device.

In July 2010 Apple listed a job posting that stated that they were working on a new revolutionary Mac OS X feature. Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple a patent for new OS X feature that could very well be a part of Apple's noted revolutionary OS X feature. It's a cool virtual input device application that works in both 2D and 3D.

Apple credits John Louch as the sole inventor of this granted patent 8,427,438 which was originally filed in Q1 2009 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Apple's patent presents 32 detailed patent claims. Our 2010 report provides you with extensive coverage of this patent with multiple graphics to help you visualize aspects of this invention. Our report's cover graphics are from Apple's Virtual input Tools patent.

Apple Granted Patent for Visual Expander

Another of Apple's granted patents published today covers their invention relating to methods and systems associated with touch screen displays. More particularly, the present invention relates to expanding graphical and sensitive portions of a touchscreen display.

Apple states that "While touchscreens generally work well, they are difficult to use when features such as buttons, web page links, or UI controls presented on the touch screen display are too small for finger activation, i.e., the finger is too large relative to the button, link or UI controls. Furthermore, the features typically don't provide the user with any feedback indicating that a finger is located on the feature. This may make it difficult to determine what feature is being selected. As a result, the user may incorrectly select a feature. For example, in web browsing, users have no control over the size of the link or button presented by a website." This is what the visual expander is to remedy.

Apple credits Peter Kennedy as the sole inventor of this granted patent which was originally filed in Q2 2010 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

To review today's 10 detailed granted patent claims and details, see granted patent 8,427,445. Click here to review our original coverage of this patent which provides you with full details and array of patent figure graphics.

A Note for Tech Sites Covering our Report: We ask tech sites covering our report to kindly limit the use of our graphics to one image. Thanking you in advance for your cooperation.

Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of granted patents with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any Granted Patent should be read in its entirety for full details. About Comments: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments.

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