Apple iPad fondlers are about to enter a THIRD DIMENSION
A dimension not only of sight and sound but of Kinect
Apple has designed three-dimensional touch technology so iPad fanbois can "pull" virtual 3D objects off the tablet screen.
The US patents office has granted the secretive secretor of shininess a patent on a method of creating and modifying 3D objects by detecting hand movements, similar to Microsoft's Xbox Kinect games controller. The protected Apple tech could allow users to build and then tweak three-dimensional objects with their hands.
Patent 8,232,990 "Working with 3D objects" was filed by inventors Nicholas King and Benjamin Todd, and awarded to Apple yesterday along with 22 other new patents.
From 'Working with 3D objects'
The idea is that by lifting your fingers off the screen of an iPad, you can "pull" a 2D object out of the on-screen scene, and render the 2D image as a 3D object. For example a 2D triangle could be "pulled" off the fondleslab's display to create a 3D prism, shown on the flat screen using software.
The iPad would use sensors to recognise hand and finger gestures, and use those dynamic inputs to create and modify a 3D virtual object. The abstract lays out the claim:
Three-dimensional objects can be generated based on two-dimensional objects. A first user input identifying a 2D object presented in a user interface can be detected, and a second user input including a 3D gesture input that includes a movement in proximity to a surface can be detected. A 3D object can be generated based on the 2D object according to the first and second user inputs, and the 3D object can be presented in the user interface.
The patent includes the proximity sensors needed to sense movement, and the processing power and temporary storage needed to generate and modify the virtual object on the screen. ®
COMMENTS
I'm surprised they don't just patent a process involving pushing out predigested foodstuffs from a ring of muscle in a persons lower digestive tract, into a large porcelain bowl filled with water, with additional user input via the use of wiping touch gestures during the clean up process and then just sue all of mandkind's arse's off literally!!!!!!
they need a working model to have it patented?
Not any more. You could get a patent on a warp drive.
Trolls can take something we can almost do, take a guess at how it will be done in the future and get a patent. Now wait for someone else to do the hard work and get it to work... profit!
SURELY this is absurd?
They're patenting a specific use of a UI? Is this a bit like patenting click-and-hold, drag, release to draw a line in a graphics program?
Re:"If I am not wrong ( I could easily be ) they need a working model to have it patented?"
Unfortunately you are mistaken. Sadly the (eminently sensible) requirement that can be summed up as "No working prototype, no patent" is in fact not a requirement. Which is why Cupertino can and do produce a huge stream of concept patents in an attempt to plant a gigantic judicial minefield all over mobile tech space. They are by no means the only offender as far as this tactic is concerned but they are certainly amongst the most assiduous practitioners.
Look out for the three iShells coming soon. No instruction manual needed...
