“In January of this year we posted a report titled ‘Apple Considers Integrating a Display into their Magic Mouse,'” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“This idea has once again surfaced in a new Apple patent that the US Patent Office published today titled ‘Incorporating Chromatic Sensors in Computer Mice,'” Purcher reports. “The first half of the patent discusses how the Magic Mouse will be able to improve performance when used on highly reflective surfaces such as glass, while the second half of the patent discusses how they’ll be able to implement chromatic sensors so as to turn the Magic Mouse into a handheld scanner.”
Purcher writes, “This is a really great idea that I hope will come to market instead of being placed into File 13.”
Much more in the full article, including Apple’s patent application illustrations, here.
Will we be using mice… *on* our touch screens?
Tired of mice!!! Apple should release a multitouch keyboard with haptic technology to go with the iMac.
That way, no need of a mouse. It would be the true iMac touch as touch on a vertical screen does not work.
yes . . . probably another wonderful idea from apple but I didn’t bother to read because of ALL THAT FLASHING CRAP ON YOUR WEBSITE > > please PLEASE resist making MDN look like a crappy website . . . it isn’t . . . but right now it LOOKS like one.
NO JOKE! YOU LOOK LIKE A LOOSER (I would make this flash if I could)
Who’s the loser?
soooo glad if they get a little scanning going on in the mouse. that would motivate me to get one. on the go scanning wands, don’t have quality yet, from customer feedback i’ve read. if apple does it, i would seriously trust the scanning ability even though it wouldn’t do the whole page across like a wand scanner.
I’d appreciate a convenient handheld scanner for graphics I see in magazines or a business card. Obviously Apple sees some value in this, being that it’s their second patent on it. The Magic mouse still has some problems to work out. Yet while they work them out, why not add some value that the other guys aren’t doing. And, contrary to some opinions, I’ll always prefer working on my desktop with a mouse and my iPad for casual stuff. The two worlds don’t really mix. At least for me of course.
I dunno. Handheld scanners died for a reason, this being the average human being’s inability to hold a straight line while scanning with them. Apple is supposed to be about clean minimal design, not bling bling and feature creep.
@ Clasqm. Apple added touch to a mouse. I don’t think adding a scanner is really bling. Ha!
Excellent!
I always wanted a mouse that could sense chrome!
hmmmmmm……a mouse from Apple….???…I think i’d rather have an os from Microsoft or toys from china or a helium filled passenger-craft from Germany or a movie from M. Night Shayamalan or an ocean-liner from south hampton England or a motorcade in dallas Texas(what? too soon?)
or birthday cake and candles and lots of silly-string or a tv show on UPN…
ok I think I’ve made my point.
I like the magic mouse, I just find myself accidentally scrolling on it way too often. Wish there was a way to toggle when to detects scrolls and when not to.
Actually, I just bought a Magic Trackpad and love it.
though-I can’t believe they actually named it “magic”.
Maybe it’s the whole “slight-of-hand” angle.
Wonder if they consulted Doug Henning during the R&D?
Whilst I like the gestures of Apple Trackpads, I still love my Microsoft (I know) Trackball Explorer. It’s kind of the reverse of a lot of trackballs in that the ball is under your fingers and your thumb controls the buttons and scrollwheel, but it works so well, I love it so much I have bought them from ebay as spares as I’m on my second (having inadvertently dropped the first on concrete floor). Mice aren’t worth bothering with in my experience.