“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.]