Will The New iPod/iPhone Be Double Sided?
05.10.07 - 10:51am
Just what will the next iPod or “mini iPhone” look like? Today we were given a huge clue with a new Apple Patent that goes over an iPod/iPhone interface.
The patent shows an iPod front screen with a touch screen click wheel back. This could be very cool once you get used to it, as when you hold the iPod your finger is around the back anyway, you could now handle your iPod one-handed, rather than holding it in your left hand and toggling with your right. Clever and interesting plus it would free up the front for a “big screen” without having to actually make the iPod bigger.
The patent titled, “Back-Side Interface for Hand-Held Devices,” would also solve the problem of the users hand obstructing what you need to see on the screen you are trying to toggle through. Plus all those nasty fingerprints on your clear beautiful screen could be avoided.
This could also work to create a “mini” iPhone, probably less expensive and just super sleek and super cool.
The way it works is when you touch the backside a ghost control appears on the front that allows you to navigate through the device. The back touch-screen is force sensitive, so when you apply more force the cursor goes from hovering to clicking.
This is what the patent said.
“A hand-held electronic device, comprising: a first surface having a display element coupled thereto; a second surface having a touch-surface coupled thereto, the second surface not coplanar with the first surface, the touch-surface adapted to detect a location on the touch-surface contacted by an object and an activation force applied to the touch-surface by the object; and control means for–displaying on the display element first information, control elements, and mark representing the contact’s location on the touch-surface, determining when the mark is spatially coincident with one of the control elements, determining the activation force is greater than a specified threshold, and activating a function associated with the one control element.”
“The method includes displaying first information appropriate to the device’s function on a display element on a top surface of the electronic device (e.g., video, graphic or textual information), displaying one or more control elements and a cursor on the display element (e.g., numeric or alphanumeric keys, buttons, sliders and control wheels), adjusting the cursor’s displayed position in response to an object contacting a force-sensitive touch-surface on the device’s bottom surface, and activating or executing a function associated with one of the control elements when the cursor is positioned “over” the control element and a force is applied to the force-sensitive touch-surface at a position corresponding to the cursor. In a preferred embodiment, the control elements are displayed transparently so that the first information is not totally occluded by the display of the control elements. A program implementing the method may be stored in any media that is readable and executable by a computer processor.”
The patent may be applied to palm or hand-held personal computers, tablet computer systems, mobile telephones, personal digital assistants, portable video players and portable audio players.
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