Apple is separating the new smartphones into its usual low-cost versus high-cost categories, with big differences between the two models coming down to the camera, display, and battery life.
iOS 13 & watchOS 6 Now Available
Haptic Feedback, Fingerprint Identification, and RFID Tag Readers in Future iPhones?
Apple has let loose a number of revealing new patent applications that cover some interesting technologies that could be used in future iPhones.
Haptic Tactile Feedback
Perhaps most interesting amongst the patent applications is the acknowledgement by Apple that despite the many advantages of the iPhone's multi-touch screen, a lack of tactile feedback remains its biggest disadvantage:
The proposed solution is the adoption of "haptic" display technologies which allow for some tactile feedback from touch screen displays. Apple proposes including a grid of piezoelectronic actuators that can be activated on command. By fluctuating the frequency of these actuators, the user will "feel" different surfaces as their finger moves across it. As an example, a display could include a virtual click wheel which vibrates at a different frequency as the center. Users could easily sense the difference and use the click wheel without having to look at it.
Haptic technology has started gaining adoption in other mobile phones and there had been some talk that Apple might have been looking to adopt it.
Fingerprint Identification as an Input Method
A second very intriguing patent application suggests the detection of a user's individual fingerprints as an input method. Fingerprints have already been used in computers for security purposes, but Apple's research involves the use of fingerprint patterns to actually identify distinct fingers. This could then be used to produce specific functions depending on which finger is being used. As shown in the table below, an index finger press might perform one action (PLAY/STOP) while a middle finger press could fast forward.
The reason for such a distinction again falls back on non-visual usage. Instead of requiring the user to find a button on the touchscreen, the use of different fingers alone could trigger different commands.
RFID Reader
Finally, the last notable application covers the dual use of a touch screen as an RFID reader. RFID tags are small circuits that can be embedded in objects for identification using a special reader. Apple suggests that the an RFID antenna can be placed in the touch sensor panel itself, allowing it to also be used as a RFID reader. As RFID tags become more prevalent, this could add a very useful function to future touch screen devices.
Haptic Tactile Feedback
Perhaps most interesting amongst the patent applications is the acknowledgement by Apple that despite the many advantages of the iPhone's multi-touch screen, a lack of tactile feedback remains its biggest disadvantage:
However, one of a touchscreen's biggest advantages (i.e., the ability to utilize the same physical space for different functions) is also one of a touchscreen's biggest disadvantages. When the user is unable to view the display (because the user is occupied with other tasks), the user can only feel the smooth hard surface of the touchscreen, regardless of the shape, size and location of the virtual buttons and/or other display elements. This makes it difficult for users to find icons, hyperlinks, textboxes or other user-selectable input elements that are being displayed, if any are even being displayed, without looking at the display.
...
Unless touch input components are improved, users that, for example, drive a motor vehicle, may avoid devices that have a touch input component and favor those that have a plurality of physical input components (e.g., buttons, wheels, etc.).
The proposed solution is the adoption of "haptic" display technologies which allow for some tactile feedback from touch screen displays. Apple proposes including a grid of piezoelectronic actuators that can be activated on command. By fluctuating the frequency of these actuators, the user will "feel" different surfaces as their finger moves across it. As an example, a display could include a virtual click wheel which vibrates at a different frequency as the center. Users could easily sense the difference and use the click wheel without having to look at it.
Haptic technology has started gaining adoption in other mobile phones and there had been some talk that Apple might have been looking to adopt it.
Fingerprint Identification as an Input Method
A second very intriguing patent application suggests the detection of a user's individual fingerprints as an input method. Fingerprints have already been used in computers for security purposes, but Apple's research involves the use of fingerprint patterns to actually identify distinct fingers. This could then be used to produce specific functions depending on which finger is being used. As shown in the table below, an index finger press might perform one action (PLAY/STOP) while a middle finger press could fast forward.
The reason for such a distinction again falls back on non-visual usage. Instead of requiring the user to find a button on the touchscreen, the use of different fingers alone could trigger different commands.
RFID Reader
Finally, the last notable application covers the dual use of a touch screen as an RFID reader. RFID tags are small circuits that can be embedded in objects for identification using a special reader. Apple suggests that the an RFID antenna can be placed in the touch sensor panel itself, allowing it to also be used as a RFID reader. As RFID tags become more prevalent, this could add a very useful function to future touch screen devices.
[ 85 comments ]
Apple today shared a new trailer for its upcoming TV show "Dickinson," which stars Hailee Steinfeld as poet Emily Dickinson.
The show will be one of the first available when Apple TV+...
Apple today seeded a beta of iOS 13.1 that's designed to work with the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max.
The new beta can be installed over-the-air after installing the proper...
Apple officially releases iOS 13 in just over an hour, and a host of new iPhone features are coming with it, including a system-wide Dark Mode, a Find My app, a revamped Photos app, updated privacy...
Netgear has opened pre-orders for the latest version of its Orbi Mesh Wi-Fi System, which features 6th-generation Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax technology that supports gigabit wireless speeds.
For those...
Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced three years ago in March 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test...
Shazam, the song discovery app owned by Apple, was today updated to add Dark Mode support ahead of tomorrow's iOS 13 launch.
Following the update, Shazam will be displayed in Dark Mode...
Apple today seeded eleventh beta of an upcoming tvOS 13 update to developers and public beta testers, one week after seeding the tenth beta and more than two months after unveiling the tvOS 13...
Facebook today announced a new set of Portal video chat devices, including one that is aimed to compete in the streaming TV market. This device is called the Portal TV, and it connects to a TV set...
