An Apple patent application surfaced on Thursday that points to a new type of multitouch screen technology.
The application, which was unearthed by Patently Apple, describes a way of integrating a touch-sensitive panel into a display, rather than layering it on top, potentially allowing for thinner and less expensive touch screens.
The application comes from a group run by Steve Hotelling, Senior Manager for touch hardware at Apple.
In an interview, a former Apple engineer who worked in Mr. Hotelling's group explained why this approach was different from the current Apple technology that is built into the iPhone. "Traditionally when you make a touch-screen display you place the touch-screen elements on top of an LCD screen," he said. 'This patent tries to integrate the two.'
By eliminating the sandwiching of a display and a touch screen, Apple would be able to build a much thinner device with a slimmer screen, the former Apple engineer said. "You would not have to buy an LCD and a touch panel for a new touch-screen device. Instead you just create one unit."
This could also reduce costs significantly, but the engineer cautioned: "This is not something Apple could do alone. They would have work with a major LCD partner to make this successful and cost-effective, or it becomes extremely expensive."
According to his LinkedIn page, Mr. Hotelling leads a team of 25 engineers at Apple. His group is responsible for developing the multitouch technology in the current iPhone. As Mr. Hotelling's resume states, his team also developed the famous circular click-wheel for iPods, and the world's first multitouch mouse trackpad with a two-finger scroll.
Source : http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Apples_new_application_with_multitouch_screen_technology-nid-64471.html
The application, which was unearthed by Patently Apple, describes a way of integrating a touch-sensitive panel into a display, rather than layering it on top, potentially allowing for thinner and less expensive touch screens.
The application comes from a group run by Steve Hotelling, Senior Manager for touch hardware at Apple.
In an interview, a former Apple engineer who worked in Mr. Hotelling's group explained why this approach was different from the current Apple technology that is built into the iPhone. "Traditionally when you make a touch-screen display you place the touch-screen elements on top of an LCD screen," he said. 'This patent tries to integrate the two.'
By eliminating the sandwiching of a display and a touch screen, Apple would be able to build a much thinner device with a slimmer screen, the former Apple engineer said. "You would not have to buy an LCD and a touch panel for a new touch-screen device. Instead you just create one unit."
This could also reduce costs significantly, but the engineer cautioned: "This is not something Apple could do alone. They would have work with a major LCD partner to make this successful and cost-effective, or it becomes extremely expensive."
According to his LinkedIn page, Mr. Hotelling leads a team of 25 engineers at Apple. His group is responsible for developing the multitouch technology in the current iPhone. As Mr. Hotelling's resume states, his team also developed the famous circular click-wheel for iPods, and the world's first multitouch mouse trackpad with a two-finger scroll.
Source : http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Apples_new_application_with_multitouch_screen_technology-nid-64471.html
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