Apple patents 3D interface for touchscreen devices

Its publication conveniently timed to coincide with insistent talk about the forthcoming Apple Tablet’s unexpected new interface, Gus Santementes of the Baltimore Sun has spotted a new Apple interface patent that describes a touch-screen device with a graphical user interface for “manipulating three-dimensional virtual objects.”

In essence, the patent — filed by three Apple software engineers — describe a way for users to manipulate 3D virtual objects like an icon, a shape or a character. The patent states that “there is a need for electronic devices with touch screen displays [to] provide more transparent and intuitive user interfaces for navigating in three dimensional virtual spaces and manipulating three dimensional objects in these virtual spaces.”

It’s possible this is the patent office skeleton of the new Tablet UI we’ve been hearing about, but I doubt it. This doesn’t describe much more than a method of interacting with 3D objects on a touchscreen, which isn’t particularly revolutionary.

My guess is that if the new Tablet UI has the dye of the weird to it, it’s going to be a lot less pedestrian than a 3D shell plopped atop the iPhone OS. More interesting is the patent’s description of an internal camera that can be shifted by the user to either back or front mounted positions: that’s something I could easily see coming to the Tablet and future iPhones, if it works up to Apple’s standards.

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[via Patently Apple]

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