Apple patents “5D” technology

Apple has been granted a host of new patents, one of which describes a technology that the document terms “5D”, allowing the fruity firm to potentially make use of both fourth and fifth dimensions.

This isn't time and some other as yet undiscovered dimension however, but term is used to describe – as explained by PatentlyApple – the “force-vector direction” and the “magnitude of force.” Sounds like something that could be incorporated into one of those boxing arcade machines.

However the patent doesn't stop there, as it's incredibly broad sweeping, giving Apple rights that hint at new gaming interaction as well as media viewing. It talks of the ability to detect dynamic events over a large area, new touch screen technology, higher quality touch capacitive displays, complex touch inputs beyond simple points, tactile feedback over large areas and several more varied touch and detection based ideas.

The patent also touches on the possibility of using radar or ultrasound to detect a person's position in the room, thereby allowing more accurate motion controls, or tailoring the viewing experience to the user. We have already seen somewhat similar technology as this, as this with the latest and greatest 3D TVs that are able to broadcast a third dimensional image to multiple viewers at varied angles.

Other parts of the patent hint at the inclusion of this sort of technology in vehicles as part of the dashboard interface. A simple use of this could be to detect the driver's height, thereby tailoring the dials and displays to aim their information directly at his/her eyes. There's also talk of the touch technology being used as a method of identification for starting a vehicle.

KitGuru Says: None of this is application ready yet of course, with a lot of it just Apple covering its patent base for the future. It does see us moving in a more virtual reality sort of direction however.

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