By : Ashleigh Allsopp
Source : http://www.pcworld.com
Category : Patent News
Apple has filed 14 new patent applications, which were published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday. The patents include an advanced new haptics system, a new battery design, a new camera feature, and some modifications to the Mac mini and high-speed cables.
Just before the new iPad was announced, it was reported that Apple could be implementing a new haptic texture display in the tablet, which would create a 'textured feedback' by means of a small electrical stimulus. The new iPad emerged with no such display, however, a new patent filed by Apple has revealed a more advanced multi-tiered haptics system, reports Patently Apple. The system would allow an iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch's display to deform to make a button, an arrow, or a map pop out of the screen to give it three-dimensional depth.
The latest patent shows an invention that uses layered haptic controls. Patently Apple says: "Haptic systems may be used for actuation such as vibration, shape change (e.g., contouring a flat surface), or other suitable actuations or combination of actuation which may provide tactile feedback to a user.
Patently Apple states that in Apple's new invention: "Stacked arrays may be used to create a contoured screen surface such as, for example, contour maps, shaped buttons, moving contours or shapes, or other surfaces with multi-scale features."
The tiered haptic display could also be pressure sensitive, a significantly beneficial feature for drawing and painting apps, for example.
Source : http://www.pcworld.com/article/255093/apple_patent_applications_hint_of_nextgen_plans.html
