Future Apple iPhone Will Have Great New Feature

It looks like Apple will come up with a new feature for the iPhone. This is evident from several patent applications from the company.

Using your iPhone in a whole new way with laser diodes, a patent suggests. And that’s a welcome new feature. You may use a future iPhone in a completely new way. This has become clear according to a new patent, spotted by means of Patently Apple. It will introduce side-mounted touch sensors so you can, for example, scroll through a page without touching the screen. That would be really cool.

Future Apple iPhone

And of course you can see the entire screen without your finger getting in the way. It is part of a patent titled “Waveguide-based interferometric multi-point/distributed force and touch sensors”. It talks about multiple sensors and lasers as ways to detect touch on input surfaces such as the side of a device (such as an iPhone).

Here is excerpt from the patent: “A laser light source, such as a VCSEL, inserts light into a waveguide placed adjacent to the detection sites, and an input to a detection site changes the light inserted into the waveguide allowing the determination of the input’s touch or force on the detection location.”

Patent

This can mean that you don’t even have to touch the side of the phone for the interaction to take place. You just need to keep your finger close to the laser diodes. That, in turn, could mean there are ways to make the phone respond, even if you’re wearing thick gloves, for example.

Apple isn’t the first to try to use the sides of the phone as an additional way to interact with your phone. HTC came up with bezels that made the handset react differently when you squeeze it, though it never really took off. Now Apple seems to be making an attempt.