Apple & Computing 18 Jan 2007 10:15 am
Multi-Touch iPhone and Patents
Apple claims to have patented the heck out of everything they’ve developed for the iPhone.
One interesting thing though, you know that “pinching” motion to zoom in/out on photos and maps? I and many other people have seen it before. A researcher at NYU, Jeff Y. Han presented work on multi-touch (fingers) enabled displays starting in 2005 at ACM UIST, and then take a look at his demo reel he prepared in January 2006…
- Frustrated Total Internal Reflection (FTIR) demo, from Jeff’s website (alt.)
Although the USPTO is not known for their brilliance (it is a gov’t agency…), they do have a few moments where they shine (like the fact that they thought that software shouldn’t receive patents, the Supreme Court forced them to). Hopefully this will be a big shiney example of Prior Art.