One of the most controversial parts of touch screen devices is their screen. Going from a world where phones had physical keyboards and buttons, having all your buttons on a touch screen can be annoying for a lot of people because you can’t use the phone without looking at it. Hopefully Apple plans to solve that, at least for iPhone users, with its latest batch of patents.
Apple recently filed for several patents that involve how the iPhone’s touchscreen works. One of them includes a patent for a haptic feedback screen which would allow the phone to give off haptic feedback to make the on-screen buttons more lifelike.
One of the biggest complaints about the iPhone is that its keyboard is on-screen, making it harder to type on than a physical keyboard. This new ability could possibly defeat those complaints, bringing it to more people who initially did not get an iPhone because of the on-screen keys.
Another one that might be of great interest is their patent for fingerprint based responses. An iPhone could sense that you are using your thumb instead of your index finger, and if you held it on the screen for 5 seconds, it could do something different than if you held your pinky on the screen for 5 seconds.
If Apple implements the ability to play, stop, or fast-forward just by touching the screen with different fingers, it could be a big step in not having to constantly look at the phone screen. Instead, you could simply just tap your index finger of the screen to play the music, without having to look for the play/pause button.
