“Apple [today] brought the gesture-recognition technology first introduced on the MacBook Air over to the new MacBook Pro systems, which will likely ship in much larger volumes than the MacBook Air and introduce many more of Apple’s customers to the idea of trackpad gesture recognition. The technology allows you to zoom in and out of pictures, for example, by using the same pinch-and-expand gesture used on the iPhone,” Tom Krazit reports for CNET.
“It’s clear… that the iPhone’s multitouch user interface is perhaps its greatest asset. And Synaptics, which makes TouchPads used in a wide variety of notebooks PCs, expects several PC vendors to introduce similar technology later this year on their own notebooks,” Krazit reports. “At CES, Synaptics introduced a new TouchPad that incorporates the same style of pinching and zooming… Microsoft is likewise hard at work investigating the potential for multitouch interfaces in computers.”
MacDailyNews Take: And Big Ass Tables.
Krazit continues, “Wired brought up an interesting point last week, however, as it looked into Apple’s chances of patenting this technology. Apple secretly acquired Fingerworks, a company started by two professors at the University of Delaware, in 2005 in order to get its hands on the MultiTouch fingertip recognition technology.”
“If Apple is successful with its patent efforts, and other PC and smartphone companies develop their own gesture-recognition technology in response, we could see a world where pinching on a MacBook might zoom, but the same gesture might close a window on a ThinkPad, or open a file on a mobile phone,” Krazit writes. “Would that be a step backward for the industry?”
Full article here.
Apple’s been ripped off quite enough over the years, thanks. If Microsoft, Nokia, or any other firm infringes on Apple’s Multi-Touch patents (or any other patents), Apple should, in the immortal words of our lawyer, Buck Finagler, junior partner with Dewey, Cheatham & Howe, “Sue ’em ’til their asses bleed!”
Let Microsoft pinch to zoom in. Click “Start” to Shut Down. Same difference.
To find out which of the cool iPhone features has been patented by Apple and are now protected from replication and which ones you can expect to be copied soon by the likes of Nokia, Samsung or Motorola, we’ve combed through the U.S. Patent and Trademark database and checked all relevant Apple’s patents.
And we came to a conclusion that this time Steve Jobs did his homework and most of the key features that make iPhone an iPhone will not be easily copied by competitors. This applies to Multi touch display, the idea to use full screen of the device for User Interface, scrolling, zooming and other finger gestures, soft on screen controls, multifunctionality, proximity, ambient light sensors and many other functions.
Steve Jobs exclaimed [in front of a slide displaying “200+ patents” during Macworld Expo 2007’s iPhone-dominated] keynote, “And boy have we patented it!” it was not an empty boast. The have indeed PATENTED it. And though not all of the claims have received patent protection yet and even less of them may withstand scrutiny in court if Apple decides to enforce them, many of the claims should should stick. – Unwired View, May 2007
Multi-touch is neither a game changer nor a step backward for the industry. It is another useful feature found on Apple’s portable computers.
Peace.
MDN uses the same Law Firm as the Car Talk guys…cool! And I hope for the sake of some peoples’ sensitivities that very few rectums have a plasmatic discharge.
Patent what? Apple didn’t invent multi-touch! They adapted it to their design. So the others will find a way to go around those Apple patents and integrate multi-touch in their devices… take a look at MS Surface if you don’t believe me.
It’s a pinch forward for those that loaf.
So this guy thinks patenting the process of multi touch commands that apple uses is a bad idea, so all other company’s should be able to use them freely?
HOW ABOUT A LICENSE?!?!?!?!?!!?
if a company doesn’t want to develop its own multi touch commands then they can ask apple for a LICENSE for theirs. THAT is how IP is protected, and how the business world works.
Fool!
“Sue ’em ’til their asses bleed!”
That’s why lawyers are compared to hemorrhoids.
“Multi-touch is neither a game changer…”
@ Lurker_PC,
Even though Apple didn’t invent it, that multi-touch thing is game changer. It’s not just a matter of look & feel, or intuitiveness. It’s about being able to develop all kind of applications for a device (e.g. iPhone), and develop a specific GUI for each and everyone of them. I mean, there’s no limitations in the flexibility. The screen will adapt to your need in terms of display and control. And with all the sensors, there’s a lot of things we’ll be able to do that remain unseen.
I trully think the release of an SDK for a multi-touch device will show the full potential of that “useful feature”, as you called it. Developers’ imagination will take care of making the revolution happen. Just like for the mouse, the applications will make it breakthrough invetion.
ALL software patents are a step backwards for the industry.
That’s why lawyers are compared to hemorrhoids.
The difference being that Preparation H gets rid of hemorrhoids.
Much ado about nothing I assure you. This is no more a step backward for the “industry” than defaulting your icons to the left vs. the right, or collapsed windows in a dock vs. the Start menu, or telling your computer to save or open a document with a voice command vs. double-clicking – It’s nothing… Really.
” take a look at MS Surface if you don’t believe me.”
Where can I get a case with a belt clip for the big ass table?
@ Jeff:
Without patents, R&D;changes from an investment to flushing money down the toilet. Why invest in the R&D;if someone can just come and take your idea once you’ve perfected it, be it software code, or a chemical compound, or hardware, or a service. Ideas and innovations need to be protected, period.
@ Mac+
You do bring up a good point. Multi-touch does have the potential to become a game changer – with new software and hardware updates. My comment was meant to describe today’s portable computers from Apple. The inclusion of multi-touch does not really affect the typical interaction between a person and the computer. Yes multi-touch alters the interface in a few specific applications for a few specific functions but overall is limited in it’s applicability. As the applicability and useability of multi-touch grows, so does the possibility of multi-touch becoming a true game changer. As of today, multi-touch is a usual (and fun) feature of the portable computers.
Peace.
Unfortunately, Apple (and other companies) are forced to patent everything they touch at this point whether for ulterior motives or not. Otherwise, some other doofus will come along and patent Apple’s techniques and sue the pants off of them.
That whole Amazon one-click patent was/is ridiculous.
I love watching people get caught up in Zune’s snare. Cracks me up how many people fall for it.
Apple’s patents are providing an effect.
Microhoo’s big as table is not using surface conductance-it’s using a bunch of infrared cameras slapped together in a coffee table. A $10,000 table at that.
Nokia and the other phone manufacturers are sloppily slapping so callled touch features on top of Microhoo’s windows mobile-providing a crap experience.
Maybe nokia and the others will eventually do some R&D;of their own and come up with interesting and useable ways to incorporate touch into their devices-if they do this, it will benefit everyone.
Pinch me!!! Pinch me!!!
Apple should hire Sue, Grabbitt and Runne for their legal counsel.
Wait…
We all know that patents are for people with no lives who think something up that most of us would say is obvious… with no idea how to actually make it into a product… and then wait for years until someone actually makes a useful product so they can be sued.
Since Apple actually built a real product, it is supposed to get sued, not sue others.
So where are the lawsuits? I don’t see no stinking lawsuits.
Dewey, Cheatham and Howe are from the Three Stooges in the early 1940’s! So, the Cah Tawk dudes did their homework.
My guess: Apple is just fadup having all the ideas stohlen seeing others getting the profit!
Now, if Apple finally decide to protect itself, some will scream about… You know… none can content everybody…
Thanks for the history, Mr. Reeee. Funny every time I hear their credits.
@ YA Steve:
“Wait…
We all know that patents are for people with no lives who think something up that most of us would say is obvious… with no idea how to actually make it into a product… and then wait for years until someone actually makes a useful product so they can be sued.”
Having professionally done some Patent reviews, I can see your point, but disagree. Afterall, some patents are specifically for design attributes that improve its manufacturability.
The big problem within the USA’s IP system is that the Patentable concept has to be submitted very early in the development process, and the IP protection can actually expire before you ever reach market.
This situation is worlds apart from the IP protection provisions afforded for writing “a silly song”, as Copyrights now last for essentially an entire Century, and due to certain large businesses who will probably bribe…I mean “Lobby”… Congress for yet another 20 year extension within the next 5-7 years, the disparity between IP protection for creating a THING and assembling existing words/notes will continue to diverge.
In other words, if you hate Patents, then simply be glad that the stuff wasn’t protected under Copyrighted.
-hh