Apple Thinks Touchscreen iMac Ergonomics In New Patent

When we posted yesterday about a new Apple patent hinting at future touchscreen Macs, one of the excellent points made in our comments section was that one reason behind Apple’s reluctance to install touchscreen panels in their non-mobile computers is the ergonomics factor: it’s just not comfortable to constantly be leaning forward to poke and prod a screen.

A new patent from Apple shows how future touchscreen Macs might just solve the ergonomic dilemma. The patent describes a touchscreen iMac with a swiveling display that rotates into a more appropriate, horizontal configuration for multitouch. A built-in accelerometer could automatically determine the display’s orientation and trigger the appropriate interface or even operating system: for example, OS X in an upright position, iOS when prone.

At the end of the day, I don’t buy that a swiveling display is how Apple would go about solving desktop touchscreen ergonomic problems. It seems a little too finnicky as a solution. Still, at least Apple’s thinking about the problem, and if Cupertino’s history with multitouch mobile devices is anything to go by… when they finally do an iMac Touch, they’ll do it right.

DON'T MISS
Apple Patent Hints At Future Touchscreen Macs… And Future iOS-Integration With OS X?

7 comments »

About the author

John Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by John Brownlee.

Posted in iMac, News, Top stories |

http://www.pendleproducts.com martin_tf
Ever since the first time I used my iPad I have wanted to replace my iMac with this. Although I think they may have something a little cleverer than this hinging arm mechanism to produce the result.
Either way I hope they make some version of it.
Helius
Well, if they don’t use a swivel display, how else do you think they are they going to do it? At some point there’s a crossover between a pad and a desktop. You can’t keep holding your arm up in the air (which is what you’d have to do with a touchscreen Mac) and you’re not going to carry a 27 or 24″ touchscreen around your house either, so there’s no other option that I can see.
Crystal Apple
Swivel display it’s going to be, just swiveling right above your keyboard and back with the touch of your finger. But, it’s just going to be called iMac, as the ‘i’ is already implying touch on Apple’s other devices. By the way, that’s why the next iPod touch will also be renamed to just iPod.
bozo
Me want now! Pleeeese… Would make a lot of things easier…
http://mackeeper.zeobit.com/ MacKeeper_Fan_Modua
Interesting….
but I feel like if you wanted touch controls on the fly, and you had to flip down you’re whole iMac (say 27″) that would be too much.
Maybe a special version iMac that has iOS on top of OSX and is slimmer with SSD standard and no optical bay, perhaps a smaller screen for touch?
lemon
iPhone, super mobile, great for media, iPad, portable but powerful, amazing for media, iMac touch or whatever, stationary but ultrapowerful, one of the best media experiences ever. Looks to me like apple has a monopoly :)
Also meant to say that the iPhone has a super mobile optimized ios, the iPad has a portable but powerful optimized ios, this should have a solely power optimized ios variant.
LOVE the iPhone and iPad experience, especially enjoy movies on iPad with iPad video converter from iFunia, so handy and amazing, freewheelingly!
William Ruzicka
shit… give me this and a stylus with pressure sensitivity and I know what my next Apple Computer is. As an artist I’m looking to save up for a Cintiq, which is basically a monitor that lays flat like this and you draw on it.