Apple has been granted a patent that would enable future iPhone, Mac and iPad models to sense and detect hover and multi-touch events via the device screen (h/t Apple Insider and Patently Apple).
This possible touchscreen display system is similar to the 3D Touch concept currently used in the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, but wouldn’t require any actual touching of the screen. In the system described in the patent, infrared LEDs and photodiodes would track the light that bounces off a user’s fingers as they hover over the screen, gauging pressure sensitivity and movement depending on how the light refracts.
Apple seems to be interested in exploring different ways of refining more control though the touchscreen displays, as evident with the 3D Touch system. Introduced only recently, 3D Touch brings the equivalent of a right click option to the iPhone and iPad. The possibilities of a hover based touchscreen display system, with that sort of mentality, seem almost endless.
2002’s Minority Report features a similar concept if you’re having trouble imagining how the touch-less system could work, but keep in mind that Apple’s version is even smoother. If Apple’s patent comes to fruition, users wouldn’t have to put on a motion tracking controller on their hands to interact with the computer screen.
Perhaps the most exciting part of this patent is that it encourages the idea of an eventual virtual keyboard for Apple devices. Apple was granted another patent a few months ago that would use a two-camera-reflector system that could track keystrokes on a projected virtual keyboard.
