Apple Patent Proposes An iPhone Display Screen Capable Of Touch-Less Interaction

It is kind of like in the movie Minority Report. But instead of waving your hands in front of a giant screen, you are doing it using your fingers over the display screen of your iPhone or iPad. Yup, it sounds more like science fiction at the moment, but Apple actually has a new patent that proposes exactly that. 

The patent is called “Proximity and multi-touch sensor detection and demodulation” and the US Patent and Trademark Office officially granted it to the iPhone maker this week. The patent involves the use of sensors that recognize the position and actions of the user’s finger(s) hovering above the mobile device’s display screen. Based on the movements of the fingers, the display screen would react accordingly.

In terms of interactive capabilities with Apple’s mobile devices, the tech giant has certainly been busy exploring new ways in which users can control and manipulate iOS handsets. Following the Siri voice controlled digital assistant, plus the new 3D Touch technology that allows for pressure sensitive interactions with the display screen, the new patent should fit right in, and should provide Apple fans with yet another reason to get excited about future iPhone models.

Like all yet to be fully realized pieces of technology, we can only imagine for now the full applications of touchless interactive capabilities right at the palm of our hands. Indeed, we are still so used to touch screen interactions that we just can not grasp yet all the things we can do when we do not have to touch our mobile devices in order to control them. 

Of course, this does not mean that Apple will be abandoning the standard touch screen set up. It is not clear yet how both touch screen and touchless interactive capabilities can be melded together in future iPhone or iPad devices, but it is a safe bet that it will further enhance how we generally complete tasks using our smartphones and tablets. Plus, we might no longer worry that much about smudging our handset’s display screens.

Interestingly, existing iPhone devices today already make use of touchless interactive capabilities. With the use of proximity sensors, the iPhone can recognize the distance between the user’s head and its own display screen. But the technology being utilized here is at its most basic. Being able to read complicated finger movements is another thing entirely, and it is not going to be a walk in the park.

But this is Apple we are talking about. If anybody could do it, it would be Apple. And if the iPhone maker can pull this off, there is a very big possibility that it could pave the way for more touchless interactive applications not only in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, but also in desktop computers, laptops, ATMs, and other everyday machines.