Patent Filing Reveals Apple’s Multipurpose Touch Interface

Apple has been developing a multipurpose touch interface, similar to a track pad, on top of which users could place several alternative types of hot-swappable mechanical control interfaces, such as audio equalizer, musical keyboard, or video game controller, a recent patent filing has revealed.

Apple Insider reports that the May 12, 2005 filing, published for the first time by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on Thursday, describes “mechanical overlays,” which may include one or more “mechanical actuators” that provide touch inputs to a touch sensing pad.

Apple said in the filing that the underlying touch sensing device could be a touch pad that is built into a computing device such as a laptop computer or one affixed to a handheld PDA or digital media player. Similarly, the touch sensing device could also be a touch-screen built into a tablet PC or a standalone device such as a tablet-sized touch pad, Apple Insider reports.

AppleInsider