“The newest iPod patent says that the touch and the screen don’t have to go together. The next gen iPod will have a display surface covering the front, and a non ‘coplanar’ touch surface on the back. Here’s how it’ll work,” Gizmodo reports.
“The front screen of the iPod or iPhone Nano shows everything, but is no more touchy-feely than your iPod’s screen today. When you touch the backside, however, transparent ‘ghost’ controls appear on the front. You’d then use your finger on the backside of the device to navigate your way through the transparent controls up front. The key to the equation is force sensitivity. As you run your finger along the backside, the cursor hovers, but when you press harder, you can click on things,” Gizmodo reports.
“Apple’s patent covers not just music and video navigation but phone controls and more,” Gizmodo reports.
Full article here.
United States Patent Application #20070103454 (filed: January 5, 2007; published: May 10, 2007):
Back-Side Interface for Hand-Held Devices
An electronic device uses separate surfaces for input and output. One of the surfaces (e.g., the bottom) includes a force-sensitive touch-surface through which a user provides input (e.g., cursor manipulation and control element selection). On a second surface (e.g., the top), a display element is used to present information appropriate to the device’s function (e.g., video information), one or more control elements and a cursor. The cursor is controlled through manipulation of the back-side touch-surface. The cursor identifies where on the back-side touch-surface the user’s finger has made contact. When the cursor is positioned over the desired control element, the user selects or activates the function associated with the control element by applying pressure to the force-sensitive touch-surface with their finger. Accordingly, the electronic device may be operated with a single hand, wherein cursor movement and control element selection may be accomplished without lifting one’s finger.
Full patent application here.
AppleInsider also covers the story here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Bizarro Ballmer” for the heads up.]
um..iPhone nano?
“…and boy have we patened it!”
BOOM!
I wonder how much getting used to this would require… and does it require two hands (one to hold the device, the other to use the touch-sensitive back)?
Having a hard time visualizing this in use.
Not sure how easy it will be to use such devices with one hand…
Interesting nontheless…
I can’t see the scroll wheel being too difficult because they can surely build in good error correction and because you’re only touching in one place then any movement you make is in relation to that touch, if you move your finger off and on, they can just reposition the control to suit your starting point. With buttons for numbers and letters you’d have to make numerous touches and know where each one was in relation to the other, without visual feedback and being able to feel the buttons I would think it would be far too difficult to work.
Good. This means no problems with touch-sensitive screens getting scratched…
Apple patents “ROM” interface — “read operator’s mind.”
Good for pointing, not good for multifinger gestures. One-handed ergonomics on a device as small and thin as an iPod Nano or an iPhone are great, with the index finger doing the pointing, but the idea of doing pinch/squeeze is not so good. Neither does it help to do it two-handed. For that, one needs two hands and a front surface.
the whole thing could just be a big fish ………for all us fishers!
Challenging to make cases for devices like this since you’d have to have a way to expose both sides.
So it’s a trackpad in reverse?
Sounds like Apple have invented things we never knew we needed.
AGAIN!
@Random Coolzip
Think of it like the trackpad on a Macbook. The display & touch area are seperate but the input on the latter is displayed on the former. In this case, just happens to be on the _back_ of the display…
Definitely will take some practice but being Apple, they would have thought of all the aspects of the UI…
Pretty cool!
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“…it’s like magic” ……… BOOM!
This would allow them to make devices that are even smaller than now without having two (battery-consuming) screens front & back, yet still remain useful.
I would hate to be an Apple Engineer. Steve works out what the ideal device would be then says ‘build it’.
I smell disinformation.
this patent sounds really interesting, i expect it to be very intuitive.
Would be hell for case makers, though. How do you create a case with the front AND back open that still protects it?
Gizmodo: “the next gen iPod will . . .”
Um, this is just a patent, folks – not an announcement. Apple might never sell a product with this.
Also, why would an iPod (not iPhone) need a numeric keypad? Is it just me, or does this look more like a potential idea for the phone, not the music player?
That was my idea about 6 months ago. BOO HOO.
I had this idea a couple of years ago, I think it’ll work just fine. I do believe you’ll need two hands to operate it effectively. It would make a great game controller. I Love games–NOT.
Pay no attention..
This is just a protection patent. That is all.
Ten years later, M$ copies it and calls it their “innovation”!
this is just an image,the cursor is very bad,remember multi-touch?yes we need multi-touch on ipods too or we stick with the click wheel to gain more market share.
Yes, this looks like either a hedge for the “iPhone nano” or the device itself. The model coming next month is quite expensive, if quite capable, while this sort of model would be less – of both. Next month we see the phone that does many things well, including being an iPod, and later we will see this stripped-down version at half the price and fewer features – maybe no movies, for example.
DLMeyer – the Voice of G.L.Horton’s Stage Page Pod-Cast
“The next gen iPod will have a display surface covering the front. . .”
So, Apple files a patent on some future technology they’re working on and Gizmodo jumps to the conclusion that it will be in the next generation?!?!?
Not
going
to
happen
This is just Apple patenting around one of their ideas so Microshit can’t copy them
Random Coolzip: “I wonder how much getting used to this would require… and does it require two hands (one to hold the device, the other to use the touch-sensitive back)?
Having a hard time visualizing this in use.”
I imagine it’s no harder for us to use any more than to use a mouse. When you use a mouse, you watch the cursor and not the mousepad. However, for someone who has never/rarely use a computer, it may take time getting used to. If you see adults using a mouse for the first time, you know what I am talking about. For that reason alone, I think this is just a matter of patenting for getting a patent while it’s still available. We won’t see this anytime soon, I bet. iPod is a thing that requires no training.
Calling this the “next-gen” iPod is very far-fetched. MDN, get a grip.
Agreed with everyone who says this ain’t gonna happen. You all know Apple patents a bunch of ideas anyway.
Look for the new iPod to be quite similar to the iPhone in functionality.
“the whole thing could just be a big fish ………for all us fishers!”
A red herring?
Brilliant! You don’t use your pointing finger when holding the iPhone/video iPod Vs. 2; a thumb and the other fingers suffice, letting your pointing finger roam along the back.
Once you get used to it, everything else will feel intolerable…outdated.
Think about it. People like touch interfaces, but don’t like having fingerprints all over their view screen. This eliminates the fingerprints.
“I do believe in ghosts, I do believe in ghosts. I do, I do, I do believe in ghosts!”
(Apologies to the Cowardly Lion…)
MW: ‘working’ as in this is a working model of an idea.
What a brilliant idea for a video player or any portable device. How come I didn‘t think of it, or actually I did but I had it on a cover flap. Maybe the next iPod really doesn’t have any connectors or buttons, just smooth surfaces all around. Wireless sync with inductive charging and Bluetooth heaphones.
I know all about Zunes and backsides.
This is useless. Every time I want to use the controls, I’d have to turn the device over so I won’t be able to see the screen!
I suggested this back when everyone was complaining that a full screen iPod was useless because you’d smudge the screen use the touch controls.
I knew if i could think of it, Apple could.
..somehow I knew this would show up …..when my own mind is tired I run my fingers across the soles of my feet to move thoughts around …rearrange logic, shove recombinant ideas up my own virtual synapse hole …oh, yeah, it’s patented so don’t even think about it. ok, I lied, it’s not patented but I thought about it. Unfortunately, I have to pay a license fee to Sim Wong Hoo. ok, that was another lie …and I’m not even touching my feet ..but seriously, I want the brains of the next iPod to be implanted in the roof of my mouth while a holographic virtual screen appears in front of my eyes …then I won’t have to keep taking off my shoes. I want to see the patent illustrations …I want to see the tongue, the iPod brains ..the screen that isn’t there yet it is there ..and I want to see the Apple logo on the moon …I want to see Enderle and Dvorak get some rehab …oh, yeah, and I want everyone working on the Redmond campus to carry an iPhone. Oh, and I think it could happen.
That is really cool. How come I can’t think of “obvious” ideas like this one.
I just tried it using a regular iPod. It seems comfortable enough with one hand. In fact, it was more uncomfortable trying to figure out how it would work with two hands. There doesn’t have to be a one-to-one correspondence with the backside and the front size. There would obviously be some scaling (smaller) or tilting of the “image” on the back side as it relates to the front side.
Each users preferences can be set with an initialization program… “Where would you like the center of the scrollwheel to be? Thank you. Now trace the circle of the scroll wheel and stop where the Menu button should be [note that user does not even have to trace out a circle on th back – it can be a thin elipse]. Thank you. The scroll wheel has been laid out. Please try it. Where would you like the top left corner of the number pad (the “1” button) to be? Thank you. Where would you like the bottom left corner of the number pad (the “#” button) to be? Thank you. All number keys have been laid out. Please try them. And so on to define each interface element.
Wah!!!
How can any self respecting electronic firm innovate when all the ideas we come up with have been patented by Apple inc?
I heard them wail, and feeling sorry for them, I asked them… Why don’t you offer to licence this patent form me?
They replied nashing their teeth….because we feel sick paying you from our heard earned money from second rate goods we thought were first rate because we obeyed the recording executives mandates.