Apple’s touch displays may go into commercial and industrial applications

Posted by Dennis Sellers Feb 3, 2006 at 11:29am

On Feb. 2, the US Patent & Trademark Office revealed Apple’s patent number 20060022956 titled “Touch-sensitive electronic apparatus for media applications, and methods therefore.” On Thursday Macsimum News presented the first in that series of patents titled “Gestures for touch sensitive input devices.” In this third patent, additional applications for Apple’s touch sensitive display technology are presented in respect to various Commercial and Industrial uses and for “media mixing controls.” The inventors listed on this patent are Gerhard Lengeling and Jonathan Jake Rubinstein for serial number 015978 originally filed on Dec. 17, 2004.

Commercial & industrial touch screens applications

It would appear that Apple may consider licensing their advanced screen touch technology – when you consider the following patent point.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a computer system 500 according to one embodiment of the invention. The computer system 500 may correspond to personal computer systems such as desktops, laptops, tablets or handhelds. By way of example, the computer system 500 may correspond to any Apple or PC based computer system. The computer system may also correspond to public computer systems such as information kiosks, automated teller machines (ATM), point of sale machines (POS), industrial machines, gaming machines, arcade machines, vending machines, airline e-ticket terminals, restaurant reservation terminals, customer service stations, library terminals, learning devices, and the like.

If you’re interested in the details of this system, review patent points 58-71 in the patent noted above.

Touch screen media mixing controls

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a computing device 100 according to one embodiment of the invention. The computing device 100 has a housing 102 that contains components and circuitry for computer processing by the computing device 100. In addition, the housing 102 has a touch screen 104. The touch screen 104 not only serves as an output device, such as a display screen, but also serves as an input device by way of a touch-sensitive surface provided over the display device. In one embodiment, the touch screen 104 is a multi-point touch screen that is capable of simultaneously receiving multiple touch inputs.

The computing device 100 can be a special purpose computing device or a general purpose computing device. The size and configuration of the computing device 100 can also vary. As an example, the computing device 100 can pertain to a tablet computer which integrally combines computer components with a touch screen into a tablet-like form factor.

In any case, when the computing device 100 is operating, the touch screen 104 can display media mixing controls. For example, the computing device 100 can execute a media mixing software application that provides media mixing functionality to the computing device 100. The media mixing controls are utilized to facilitate user input of media mixing operations that are supported by the media mixing software application. Hence, the computing device 100 can be a central component of a media mixing system. The media mixing system would provide media inputs to the computing device 100 and would receive media outputs provided by the computing device 100. The touch screen 104 of the computing device 100 displays the media mixing controls on the touch screen 104. Hence, the media mixing controls are virtual controls that are graphically displayed by the touch screen 104 but are not physically present. Nevertheless, a user of the computing device 100 can interact with the media mixing controls to effectuate media mixing operations.

More particularly, as shown in FIG. 1, the media mixing controls displayed on the touch screen 104 can include a plurality of dials 106, a plurality of buttons 108, a plurality of status indicators 110, and sliders 112. Using the touch screen 104, a user could interact with one of the dials 106 so as to effectively rotate the dial to provide a media mixing operation. For example, the dial 106 being rotated could pertain to an equalizer level, a filter cut frequency, a trim amount, a pan amount, etc. Additionally, the user can interact with the touch screen 104 to select or deselect one of the buttons 108. For example, the buttons 108 can correspond to channel selection, mute, polarity, etc. The status indicators 110 can indicate status of an aspect of media mixing. For example, the status indicators 110 can indicate power-on, button selected, channel utilized, etc. The sliders 112 can be selected by the user and then slid up or down. For example, the sliders 112 can be used as faders, such as for volume or signal level control.

Still further, since the touch screen 104 is capable of multi-point touch sensing, a user (or a plurality of users) can simultaneously interact with more than one of the media mixing controls at any given point in time. For example, the user may concurrently manipulate one or more dials 108, buttons 108 or sliders 112, or any combination thereof. The multi-point touch screen 104 can simultaneously sense these different interactions with different media mixing controls so that the appropriate media mixing controls are able to not only be concurrently sensed but also have their graphical display modified.

Touch screen slider

FIGS. 2B-2D are diagrams illustrating operations of a slider according to one embodiment of the invention. The slider is, for example, suitable for use as one of the sliders shown in FIG. 1 or FIG. 2A. In FIG. 2B, a slider includes a slider bar 250 depicted on a touch screen 252. A slider control 254 is provided on the slider bar 250. The user can interact and manipulate the position of the slider control 254 with respect to the slider bar 250. FIG. 2C illustrates the slider control 254 towards the top of the slider bar 250. FIG. 2D illustrates a portion of an overlay 256 having a guide groove 258 aligned over the slide bar 250. The guide groove 258 assists a user with interacting with the slider bar 250 by maintaining alignment with respect to the slider bar 250. Hence, the user can manipulate the slider bar 250 without having to visually coordinate one’s finger or stylus position over the slider bar 250.

NOTICE

Macsimum News presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details.

neo@macsimumnews.com

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