Apple envisions trackpad with sensors instead of click buttons

Apple wants to tweak the traditional trackpad, at least as described in a patent filing.Published on Tuesday by the US Patent and Trademark office, a patent application named "Touch pad with force sensors and actuator feedback" floats the idea of a trackpad that doesn't need a click button to respond to your touch and offer you feedback. Instead, the pad would be built with sensors to detect how hard you tap.Many laptops still include click buttons above or below the touchpad. Others, such as Apple's own MacBook, integrate the click feature into the trackpad itself. Either way, you still have to press down for the device to register your touch.In Apple's invention, sensors would be outfitted at all four corners of the trackpad. Those sensors would determine the pressure of your touch and respond accordingly. Further, the sensors could provide tactile feedback so you can feel the response of the trackpad without it having to physically move down. Audible vibrations could mimic the sound of a click as you tap down on the touch pad.You could also control the sensitivity of the sensors and the tactile feedback based on whether you have a lighter or heavier touch. Finally, Apple's invention would save space under and around the trackpad by eliminating the need for dedicated click controls.(Via AppleInsider)

Apple envisions three sensors to improve iPhone's color photos

Your iPhone of the future could deliver better color photos if equipped with three separate sensors.Granted Tuesday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, an Apple patent dubbed "Image capture using luminance and chrominance sensors" envisions a way to include one sensor for luminance and two for chrominance as a way to better capture colors in your moble device's photographs.Luminance measures the amount of light reflected from an object, while chrominance defines the color of an image. The technology built into the iPhone would combine the luminance from the first sensor and the chrominance from the other two sensors to form a single composite image. As such, the final image would more faithfully reproduce the actual colors, resulting in a higher quality and more accurate photo.Each sensor may have a blind spot where it can't detect a certain region included in the photograph. The three-sensor approach would compensate for this by ensuring that the blind regions are all offset by other sensors. So, if one sensor doesn't "see" a certain region, another sensor would pick it up.A multi-sensor technology has been on Apple's mind. A patent granted to the iPhone maker on July 23 described a way to combine two or more sensors in a mobile device to create better photos and videos.(Via AppleInsider)