Apple Invents Backside Force Touch Controls for iPad
One of Apple's longest running projects is designing an iPad that provides users with additional backside touch controls. The project goes as far back as 2006. Patently Apple first covered the concept in a report titled 'Apple: The Tablet Prophecies' just prior to the iPad being introduced by Steve Jobs. Patently Apple's second report on this surfaced back in 2012 in a report titled "Apple Reveals Future iPad with Backside Controls for Gaming.' Five years later and the US Patent & Trademark Office has published the next patent application from Apple relating to the iPad with backside touch controls. This time around Apple is adding Force Sensors to the controls so as to add yet another dimension to their long standing project, as well as extending it to the iPhone.
Apple's patent FIG. 5 above shows a method of distinguishing between back-side force and front-side force; Apple's patent FIGS. 6A-D show possible arrangements of force interaction zones on the back side of the device.
Apple's patent FIG. 7 above shows possible force gestures on the back side of the device; FIGS. 8A-8B show a possible combined gesture on the back side of the device; FIG. 9A-9B show another possible combined gesture on the back side of the device.
Apple notes that in FIG. 7 the back-side force presses at the edges of the device may provide page changes in paginated documents as a back-side force specific action. For example, in one embodiment a force press on the left half of the back side may trigger going back a page, while a force press on the right half of the back side may trigger going forward a page.
In another embodiment, a force press on the left quarter may trigger going back a page, a force press on the center-left quarter may trigger an action similar to scrolling upward one stop on a mousewheel (e.g., scrolling upward three lines), a force press on the center-right quarter may trigger an action similar to scrolling downward one stop on a mousewheel (e.g., scrolling downward three lines), and a force press on the right quarter may trigger going forward a page. Other mappings between back-side force detection zones and gestures and user interface interactions may also be incorporated.
In some embodiments, back-side force may be used to provide multi-tasking interactions. For example, in some embodiments a back-side force press or force swipe action might trigger switching an application to a split-screen or picture-in-picture mode. In other embodiments, a back-side force press or force swipe action might switch between applications. In one embodiment, applying a force press to the left half of the back of the device may switch to the previous application while a force press applied to the right half of the back of the device may switch to the next application.
In other examples of a back-side force specific action, back-side force may provide additional axes of interaction (e.g., additional rotation axes in content). In one embodiment, back-side force swiped vertically along the back side of the device may cause content to tilt along an axis running horizontally from the center-left side of the display to the center-right side of the display. In one embodiment, back-side force swiped horizontally along the back side of the device may cause content to tilt along an axis running from the top-center of the display to the bottom-center of the display.
Apple's patent application 20170269785 was filed back in March 2017 and published today by the U.S. Patent Office. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.
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