Apple Acquires 3 New Patents

The tech giant Apple seems to have it’s finger in everything at the moment, they have one of the most popular smart phones and tablets on the market, the Macbook keeps going from strength to strength and the release of Mac Pro in February. To top this all off Apple has, over the holiday period acquired three new patents. These being a “touch and hover display”, “heart rate monitor’ and a “desk-free computer”. Upon inspection the “touch and hover” patent sounds very similar to the technology found in all Samsung products.

Apple’s hover display would work in the same way with the user holding their finger or stylus over a desired app, with the hover display then opening the app as if it had been pressed on the touch screen. Developers are looking into engineering the interface to sense how long a user hovers over an app so to cut out accidental opening of apps, if to say you were just scrolling through your phone and had your finger above an app the interface would be able to sense  how long your finger has been their and act accordingly.

The second patent is relatively simple, it will focus on monitoring heart rate and will be able to read electrocardiography (EKG) data which is so intricate that the monitor would be able to identify users based on minute differences in their heart beats.

The third patent looks to resemble a Mac mini with a projector lens on it’s side (see image below). The patent also looks at including in the “desk-free-computer” an accelerometer and proximity sensor, so the device would be able to detect how far away from the wall on which the devices screen would be projected. The patent for the “desk-free-computer” is also looking at a nifty piece of technology that seems to be taking off at the moment and that is inductive charging. This would mean not only would the device would be display free, it also means that the device could be a true mobile solution cutting down the wires coming out of the device dramatically and turning it into a true “desk-free-computer”.

As with all patents that are registered or acquired, it may be some time before any solid news about these patents becomes available, but it could be an insight into the direction Apple is looking forward to moving into.

Thank you The Sydney Morning Herald for providing us with this information.

Images courtesy of USPTO and Gizmodo UK.