“On January 24, the US Patent & Trademark Office published Apple’s patent application titled Illuminated touchpad,” Neo reports for MacNN.
“Apple’s patent generally relates to touchpads that provide visual feedback. More particularly, the present invention relates to illuminated touchpads that use light to provide feedback. Apple’s current patent would strongly suggest that the iPod classic could likely take another leap forward in the future with an advanced touchpad that displays unique illumination attributes. Apple’s current patent also covers the very touchpad features that debuted in their new MacBook Air earlier this month at MacWorld,” Neo reports.
“The present invention pertains to improved feedback mechanisms for touchpads. One aspect relates to devices capable of illuminating the touch-sensitive surface of the touchpad,” Neo reports. “Another aspect relates to methods for providing visual feedback at the touch pad.”
Much more in the full article, including patent illustrations, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Masa” for the heads up.]
> Apple’s current patent would strongly suggest that the iPod classic could likely take another leap forward in the future
I doubt that the iPod “classic” will be leaping anywhere other than retirement. Apple will keep making them while there is demand, and maybe even increase capacity one more time. But the iPod with a hard drive is on the way out. However, a new Flash-based iPod with “illuminated touchpad” is certainly possible.
Any wild guesses?
Neo. He escaped the matrix and never looked back!
I’m betting that they will be changing out the touchpads in the laptops to provide visual feedback or even be able to display graphics on them for selection of items/buttons/sliders/etc.
This patent application was discovered by Apple Insider about 6 months ago, reported on, and even posted here on MDN. Why do we have a rehash of old news?
If you offer an ipod that is uber thin, all flash based, has an illuminated touchpad, and the long reported chameleon outer shell you have the makings of another iteration of iPod that will be a practical, and fun device that is also a fashion statement
I’m sure Apple can easily implement this. They already have a green light showing through the casing on the Macbook and Macbook Pro to indicate if the built-in iSight is on.
There shouldn’t be too much trouble extending the concept to other parts.
“This patent application was discovered by Apple Insider about 6 months ago, reported on, and even posted here on MDN. Why do we have a rehash of old news?“
Because the new news is so grim?
I’m still waiting for an external multi-touch trackpad to replace my trackball; if it’s got built-in light sensors, so much the better… just release it already.
LOL! Ampar, you roll me!
MW:involved
Mary Jane: ::blush::
(I’m just glad Apple nipped this one before any competitors could.)
Illuminated touchpads… So what???
Ampar – You clearly are trying to milk this for all it’s worth. We need to wean you from this retrograde humor. Any boob can make these jokes, you’re better than that.
Ampar –
Thanks for keeping us abreast of the inspirations for this story.
Ditto.
Peace.
It’s all just tit for tat, guys. Apple’s patent cup runneth over.
Ahh…the time to replace my 3rd gen is coming. Feel sorry for my kid who just bought the 160 gigger. Give me a light show [the MW] any day. Or night.
The iphone enlarged and spread out into keyboard size, makes sense. My dream machine… Two Macbook Air monitors wedged together, one of them, the complete surface has the iphone multi touch capabilities. The beauty of having a keyboard that could double as a second monitor is you could flip the laptop sideways when reading pdfs or whatever. And swipe through the pages. It would be great for those in the desktop publishing game being able to preview their work as it would look in book/magazine form.