Appletell | Apple, Mac, iPhone, iPod | News, Rumors, Reviews, How-Tos

Rumors of where Apple is going to implement MultiTouch Technology have been going from the iPod all the way up to the iMac. An Apple patent (filed by Fingerworks [a company Apple bought] back in January) published today shows that MultiTouch is definitely a technology they want to implement in their product line other than the iPhone.

Many attempts have been made over the years to improve the way users interact with computers. In the beginning, cards or tapes with punched holes were used for user input. Punch cards gave way to terminals with alphanumeric keyboards and text displays, which evolved into the modern keyboard, mouse and graphical-display based graphical user interfaces. Many expect that the use of multi-finger, touch-sensitive user interfaces (“multi-touch interfaces“), such as those described in the references incorporated above, will become widely adopted for interacting with computers and other electronic devices, allowing computer input to become even more straightforward and intuitive.

The patent talks about MultiTouch gestures which could be used to invoke a number of different actions. If Apple creates a Tablet Mac, or implements MultiTouch in it’s displays or iPods, these different gestures will most likely make an appearance. The patent states there are approx. 300 different combinations per hand, so the possibilities for what Apple could do with this technology is almost endless.

Via [MacRumors]