Touchzel – Apple’s new way to control your handhelds
Touchpad? Who needs touchpad when we can have a touchzel. That is touch sensitive bezel around the electronic device that can perform various input and operation functions. At least that’s what Apple has thought up now as another improvement for it’s elusive Multifunctional handheld device.
Recent patent filing for “Electronic Device Having Display and Surrounding Touch Sensitive Bezel for User Interface and Control” shows that Apple has developed another interesting way to operate it’s portable gadgets. Instead of dedicated buttons, touchpads or scroll wheels that uses a lot of precious real estate of the handheld, Apple suggests that we use a narrow touch sensitive bezel around the perimeter of the device for data input and control.
When user touches the bezel touch data is generated and used to operate the handheld. Since the whole surface of the bezel is touch sensitive, a lot of different operations can be performed – it can recognize sliding motion for scrolling or moving images, differentiate between a number of fingers pressing the bezel for operation of multiple controls, measure the pressure force for different actions. The device can also include motion and orientation sensors to adjust the bezel controls for different modes of operation. Visual guides on the screen next to the bezel provide the information what actions can be performed when user presses particular area.
Here’s some interesting applications of touchzel for music:
An pictures:
If you liked the post, you might find these interesting too:
- Touchscreen Ruler Interface for Samsung PMP
- Samsung E950 slider ready for U.S, shipping in Europe
- Nokia patents a dedicated gaming console/phone idea
- Apple is looking beyond Multi-Touch
- HTC is working on next gen “Virtual Book” touch UI
« iTV – Apple’s play on Home Multimedia ConvergenceNokia N75 Nseries cellphone/multimedia computer launched »