“The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday granted Apple a patent for a three-dimensional remote control system that can employ both absolute and relative position detection to manipulate on-screen graphical assets, much like Nintentdo’s Wii gaming console,” Mikey Campbell reports for AppleInsider.
“Apple’s U.S. Patent No. 8,291,346 for a ‘3D remote control system employing absolute and relative position detection’ describes a system in which a user can interact with software by using a motion and light-sensing remote control,” Campbell reports. “Much like Nintendo’s Wii, the system uses infrared light sources and photodetectors, as well as an accelerometer, to calculate the absolute or relative position of the remote in respect to the display. ”
Campbell reports, “This allows a user to point at an on-screen object or asset and manipulate it in three-dimensions… Because the patent was filed for in 2006, before the original iPhone was announced, Apple’s handset is not mentioned in the invention, however it can be assumed that the smartphone can also be adapted to become a 3D remote.”
More info, including Apple’s patent application illustrations, in the full article here.
Bad link
What do you expect from MDN? They think that 90% is good enough.
WTF? 6 years for the patent to be granted?
Is this part of Jobs claims to have “cracked TV”?
MDN often has erroneous links, why?
anyway, the AppleInsider article link is this:
http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/10/16/apples-patented-tech-can-make-an-iphone-a-3d-remote-control
The iphone isn’t mentioned in the patent and so it’s a false byline which is appleinsiders craft. It’s about a remote for a console, e.g. Apple TV. Bad report.