Baltimore Sun writer Gus Sentementes has dug up more Apple patents pertaining to 3D technology and Apple’s multi-touch user interface. The patent application device drawings show a flat iPhone like interface device with additional buttons and sensors on its primary face.
While a home button is present in the center lower region on the upper region we find both an optical sensor and a proximity sensor. A speaker sits along side those. An accelerometer and microphone flanks the home button at the bottom.
You can check out Gus’ article here for a picture. He did a good job of digging up the background on the patent itself, which belongs to three French Apple employees.
It seems clear that Apple intends utilize motion and optical sensor-based user interface technology with its next revolutionary product. We saw an example of this in our report that linked to a video and we are seeing more and more details pour out on its upcoming tablet-like computer.
What’s exciting about this is when we wrote about the Mac touch product concept more than a year ago we talked about such a handheld device being great for field workers…of which the AEC (architecture/engineering/construction) market is a excellent example. Having a tablet computer wherein you can easily rotate BIM models or 3D models of buildings in the field using your body and head would absolutely rock! Apple intends to make more and better use of our bodies for future handheld devices as well as our voices (note the microphone in this patent!). This is all very exciting stuff.