Apple may be adding useful swipe gesturing functionality to the virtual keyboard on the company’s mobile devices, according to a report at MacRumors.
Blogger Arnold Kim describes two potentially effective additions to Apple’s touch interface contained in a patent application filed yesterday with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Aside from the single finger swipes depicted in the diagrams below, multi-touch gestures (two and three fingers) could invoke other special functions. If a single finger left-swipe might delete a letter, a two finger left-swipe could delete a whole word, and a three finger left-swipe could delete a line. Similarly, a single finger right-swipe could add a space, while a two finger right-swipe could add a period. Up swipes and down swipes could also invoke different functions based on the number of fingers used.
As with Apple’s evolving multi-touch notebook trackpads, these optional functions could provide iPhone and iPod Touch users with useful and welcome shortcuts.
Lonnie Lazar is a writer-musician-web designer-attorney. He writes about Apple for Cult of Mac and Mac|Life, and about VoIP and telecommunications for Voxilla. Follow Lonnie on Twitter @LonnieLazar, join the Cult of Mac on Facebook, and find Lonnie’s photos on Flickr.
8 responses to “Patent Application Points to Swipe Gestures for iPhone’s Virtual Keyboard”
Why hasn’t Palm disputed any of this? My recollection is they invented the “swipe” as a part of the user interface. Apple might be able to copyright or trademark some of this, but simply claiming patents on a left-swipe versus right-swipe versus diagonal seems pretty fishy. The multi-finger interface appears valid, but patenting specific motions is suspect. After all, why don’t I just file a patent for a double-finger loop? Then anyone who uses it has to pay me a royalty. If that works I’ll patent “Use of a single digit to evacuate mucus from olfactory canals.” Next time you pick your nose you’ll owe me a buck.
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+More iPhone Keyboard Multi-Touch Swipe Gestures
http://devicegadget.com/iphone…