“On May 30, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a new flexible display invention,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“Apple has filed a number of flex display based patents over the last year including one for advanced concepts and features, another relating to the a next generation Smart Cover and yet another relating to unique functionality beyond the gimmickry of flex screen designs,” Purcher reports. “Today’s patent extends on the latter patent in that it ties a flex screen directly to an application such as Apple’s GarageBand. In the future, playing the piano will be more realistic allowing the user to press the keys harder or softer to get the right sound that they’re seeking.”
Purcher writes, “I’m sure that Apple is working on other applications for this new functionality but we’ll just have to wait until they roll it out to see just how cool this could be.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]
Pressure sensitivity could be a really great interface on a touch phone. We’ve seen how pressure sensitive styli work well on graphics tablets, the musical application has already been mentioned in the article and there will be countless opportunities to use it in a games controller.
More innovation from Apple. Too bad ShameScam will rip this off…as always.
Pressure sensitive controls could be useful for many things. In art apps, pressure could be used to realistically control brush strokes and releases from the “canvas.” In a racing game, pressure sensitivity could be used to more realistically modulate acceleration and braking.
If used incorrectly or inconsistently, this extra “degree of freedom” on touch input could be irritating or confusing. However, with iOS, Apple has a distinct advantage over Android in being able to create a framework for utilizing a pressure sensitive display.
Hey, some actual news about an Apple product and not the inane wall street talk…