Apple porting 3D interface to iSlate | iPhone

 

The patent is for a “touch screen device, method and graphical user interface for manipulating three-dimensional virtual objects.” So we’ll be playing with 3D icons in a virtual landscape. Well, this is the future we’ve been waiting for. Now just to see if this ever gets rolled out, or if it’s another of Apple’s quiet patents that they never use.

The device supports a variety of applications, such as one or more of the following: a game application, a telephone application, a video conferencing application, an e-mail application, an instant messaging application, a blogging application, a photo management application, a digital camera application, a digital video camera application, a web browsing application, a digital music player application, and/or a digital video player application.

If this patent comes to fruition, the next iPhone/iPod/tablet interface might be nothing like anything we've seen before, and it could perhaps explain why we've been hearing "new type of interaction" descriptions of the tablet.

In patent filings, companies typically lay out a current problem or hurdle in a field of technology which they then propose, to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, that their new innovation will address.

In this case, the patent application states: "...[T]here is a need for electronic devices with touch screen displays that provide more transparent and intuitive user interfaces for navigating in three dimensional virtual spaces and manipulating three dimensional objects in these virtual spaces."

So, what is the essence of this patent filing and Apple's interest in it? Let me try and distill it for you:

This patent filing is meant to cover the implementation of three-dimensional image-handling on different types of devices, including multi-touch sensitive tablets.

The 3D images, or "virtual objects," that can be generated include an icon, a virtual game object or a virtual game character. Basically, your icons and characters on this device will have a three-dimensional quality in a two-dimensional space, which could lead to novel ways of interacting with the device.

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