“The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 39 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
Purcher reports, “Apple’s patent filing describes a futuristic non-physical MacBook keyboard that only appears when the the user waves their hand over the keyboard area: ‘This ability may allow the housing input mechanism 600 to be implemented as a hidden keyboard, where the illumination devices are illuminated when the user waves his hand over the housing to cause the keys to appear.'”
Much more, including Apple’s patent application illustrations and diagrams, in the full article here.
Isn’t that special.
This just in: Samsung files patent for Vanishing Keyboard. Not to be confused with disappearing keyboards, the vanishing keyboard vanishes and returns based on specific gestures.”
I don’t even know why Apple bothers filing patents anymore. It’s not like they’ll have any protections in the courts for their inventions. It’s almost better for them not to file anything to keep their ideas under wraps and hope to just enjoy first mover advantages.
Say what? They just won 500 million + from Samsung and in the second trial they’ll be able to bring in new patents to beat Samsung on.
Samsung has lost their 22nd case in a row by abusing essential patents to prove that Samsung is an aggressor here.
Apple will play by the rules and keep defending their IP. Not every case will go Apple’s way, that’s life, but they do win.
I don’t think you’re familiar with Apple’s intellectual property history.
Are you implying some sort of chicanery here?
Samdung’s keyboard “Vanishes and returns based on specific” Apple gestures. The USPTO is samdungs biggest R & D center.
Samskunk didn’t think it needed to be concerned about infringing a patent on an invisible keyboard because they didn’t think the idea was patentable.
After looking at the patent, the micro holes will allow light to shine through to define the keys. The spin off of that idea is that it could present keys or different configurations like for game controls. So it would provide users with flexibility. That’s the possible magic here.
To Thelonious Mac, good one!
Or keyboards for different languages …
What is the point of having the keyboard being not visible so that you would have to wave your hand over it to make it appear??
Pure coolness factor.
The purpose is to be reconfigurable. So if you’re playing a game, the keyboard area could be turned into a game controller. If you’re in a music app, perhaps it could convert to being a sound board for mixing and so forth. That’s great if they could actually get it right, especially for the keyboard. Waving your hand over that area will then reveal the keyboard, close the keyboard and switch to another interface.
And everyone of these features will be stolen by Samsewage before the ink is dry on the paper.
Reminds me of that TV special done on wasteful science where the government was spending hundreds of thousands on testing how ketchup flowed from a bottle.
Apple’s Touch technology applied to a pro keyboard-sized flat surface would do pretty much the same thing, work as well (if not better), and actually provide more options for configurability.