Apple patents involve multi-touch devices
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Sep 4, 2008 at 12:55pm
Several Apple patents involving multi-touch and touch sensitive devices have appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. Patent number 20080211766 is for a method for performing multi-touch (MT) data fusion in which multiple touch inputs occurring at about the same time are received to generate first touch data.
This relates to systems utilizing multi-touch sensitive input devices and other input devices, and more particularly, to the combining of multi-touch input data with data from other input devices to gain an advantage thereby increasing the efficiency and performance of inputting operations. According to Apple, a method for performing multi-touch (MT) data fusion is disclosed in which multiple touch inputs occurring at about the same time are received to generating first touch data. Secondary sense data can then be combined with the first touch data to perform operations on an electronic device. The first touch data and the secondary sense data can be time-aligned and interpreted in a time-coherent manner. The first touch data can be refined in accordance with the secondary sense data, or alternatively, the secondary sense data can be interpreted in accordance with the first touch data. Additionally, the first touch data and the secondary sense data can be combined to create a new command.
Here’s Apple’s background and summary of the invention: “Systems may have multiple input means. However, each input means is typically operated independently of each other in a non seamless way. There is no synergy between them. They do not work together or cooperate for a common goal such as improving the input experience.
“While the fingertip chording and movement data generated by multi-touch input devices can provide a strong set of user control means, additional information from other sensing modalities when combined or fused with the chording and movement data can significantly enhance the interpretative abilities of the electronic device and/or significantly improve the ease of use as well as streamline input operations for the user. Therefore, embodiments of the invention propose the concept of MT data fusion, which is defined as the combination of data from one or more independent sensing modalities with chording and movement data from a MT sensor in order to improve the operation and use of an electronic device.
“There are a number of independent sensing modalities that when fused with Multi-touch chording and movement data provide enhanced performance and use of electronic devices. The sources of independent sensing data fall into several categories: (1) those that measure some aspect of the user’s body state, (2) those that measure data from the environment, which could include sensing data from other individuals, and (3) those that measure some aspect of the state of the electronic device.
“In accordance with one embodiment, one or more of these independent data sources can be fused temporally with movement and chording data from a multi-touch sensor to significantly enhance the performance and use of electronic devices. The information flowing from the various sources can be combined or fused such that events in each data stream are time aligned with each other. As such, the multiple data streams can be properly understood in conjunction with the other.
“In accordance with other embodiments, the results of voice recognition and speech understanding can be fused with multi-touch movement data in such a way as to significantly enhance electronic device performance. The contact size and contact separation of touch data along with finger identification data (such as from a camera) can allow the multi-touch system to make guesses concerning finger identification of the touch data. Gaze vector data (the determination of a user’s gaze) can be fused with touch data and/or objects appearing on a display to perform various operations such as object movement or selection. The fusion of device dynamics data (e.g. movement data) with multi-touch movement data can result in a smoothing out (i.e., improved filtering) of unintended finger motion due to the means of traveling (e.g., vibrations and jolts).
“Biometric inputs include, but are limited to, hand size, fingerprint input, body temperature, heart rate, skin impedance, and pupil size. Typical applications that might benefit from the fusion of biometric data with multi-touch movement data would include games, security, and fitness related activities. Facial expressions conveying emotional state can also be fused advantageously with multi-touch movement data during creative activities such as music composition.”
The inventors are Wayne Carl Westerman and John Greer Elias. The graphic below is a block diagram of an electronic device or system utilizing multi-touch (MT) data fusion in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
Patent number 20080211778 is for screen rotation gestures on a portable multifunction device. The “disclosed embodiments” relate generally to portable electronic devices, and more particularly, to portable devices that implement screen rotation gestures.
In accordance with some embodiments, a computer-implemented method performed at a portable multifunction device with a touch screen display includes displaying information on the touch screen display in a portrait orientation, says Apple. The method also includes detecting simultaneous rotation of two thumbs in a first sense of rotation on the touch screen display, and in response to detecting the simultaneous rotation of the two thumbs in the first sense of rotation, displaying the information in a landscape orientation. In some embodiments, the method further includes detecting simultaneous rotation of the two thumbs in a second sense of rotation that is opposite the first sense of rotation, and in response to detecting the simultaneous rotation of the two thumbs in the second sense of rotation, displaying the information in a portrait orientation.
The inventors are Bas Ording, Marcel Van Os and Imran Chaudhri. The graphic below is a block diagram illustrating portable multifunction devices with touch-sensitive displays in accordance with some embodiments.
Patents 20080211775, 20080211783, 20080211784 and 20080211785 are for gestures for touch sensitive input devices. Methods and systems for processing touch inputs are disclosed. The invention in one respect includes reading data from a multipoint sensing device such as a multipoint touch screen where the data pertains to touch input with respect to the multipoint sensing device, and identifying at least one multipoint gesture based on the data from the multipoint sensing device.
The inventors are Steve Hotelling, Joshua A. Strickon, Brian O. Huppi, Imran Chaudhri, Greg Christie, Bas Ording, Robert Duncan Kerr and Jonathan P. Ive.
Patent number 20080216001 is for a portable electronic device with content-dependent touch sensitivity. It relates to user interfaces, and, in particular, to user interfaces that employ touch-sensitive displays and include content-dependent touch sensitivity.
According to Apple, a portable electronic device, having a touch-sensitive display, displays a plurality of icons on the touch-sensitive display. A contact region when a user makes contact with the touch-sensitive display is detected. Whether the contact region corresponds to one of the plurality of icons is determined in accordance with an electrostatic model.
Here’s Apple’s background on the invention: “As portable devices become more compact, and the amount of information to be processed and stored increases, it has become a significant challenge to design a user interface that allows users to easily interact with the device. This is unfortunate since the user interface is the gateway through which users receive not only content but also responses to user actions or behaviors, including user attempts to access a device’s features or tools. Some portable electronic devices (e.g., mobile phones) have resorted to adding more pushbuttons, increasing a density of push buttons, overloading the functions of pushbuttons, or using complex menu systems to allow a user to access, store and manipulate data. These conventional user interfaces often result in complicated key sequences and menu hierarchies that must be memorized by the user. In addition, as the number of pushbuttons has increased the proximity of neighboring buttons often makes it difficult for users to activate a desired pushbutton.
“Many conventional user interfaces, such as those that include physical pushbuttons, are also inflexible. This is unfortunate since it may prevent a user interface from being configured and/or adapted by either an application running on the portable device or by users. When coupled with the time consuming requirement to memorize multiple key sequences and menu hierarchies, and the difficulty in activating a desired pushbutton, such inflexibility is frustrating to most users.
“Accordingly, there is a need for more transparent and intuitive user interfaces for portable electronic devices that are easy to use, configure, and/or adapt.”
The inventors are Bas Ording, Scott Forstall, Greg Christie, Stephen O. Lemay, Imran Chaudhri and Scott Herz. The graphic below is a schematic diagram illustrating an embodiment of a portable electronic device responsive to touch input.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
