Apple patent suggests Magic Mouse with display panel

A newly revealed Apple patent has an interesting take on the Magic Mouse: the patent shows a display embedded in its touch surface, creating sort of a mini iPod touch-style interface. It's not clear just how much processing power the display-enabled mouse itself would have, but uses mentioned in the patent seem to involve the display working in conjunction with actual Mac apps, like showing a calculator when using the Numbers app on your Mac, or a magnification of text when using Pages.

There is an actual processor listed in the patent, so the Mouse would have some capability of its own to run integrated apps. You may be able to set up parts of the touch display surface to work as buttons, maybe to handle special functions in games or apps. And the patent also says that this display technology could be used in the Magic Trackpad or even in the MacBook trackpad itself, providing an extra space for displaying graphics wherever the user has a touch interface to play with.

It's an interesting idea. As with most of these patents, it sounds like this is simply something Apple is researching rather than actual technology going into an approaching Magic Mouse refresh -- there are a lot of elements that have to be worked out (like why would you put a display on a device usually covered by your hand?) before this kind of thing goes on sale. But it is an interesting idea, and we may one day see Apple use it in a real product.

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Source: http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2011/01/apple-co…

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A newly revealed Apple patent has an interesting take on the Magic Mouse: the patent shows a display embedded in its touch surface,...

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Mike

On a semi-related matter, I bought a Magic Trackpad yesterday and I was thinking it would be very handy if I could use it like a Wacom Tablet, mapping the surface 1:1 to the screen, and get ThinkGeek's iPhone/iPad/Trackpad stylus. Anyone know of a utility to do this?

January 20 2011 at 4:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Mike's comment

kitty

If you mean the "Metal iPhone/iPad Brush Stylus" from ThinkGeek it's terrible. I did not try it with a trackpad but it barely worked on iPod Touch. Poor design - lots of small parts to lose (might fling out or get stuck in various lids that have no place to store during use) also the metal brush frayed like an old toothbrush. Only thing I ever returned from there - usually their stuff is great.

January 24 2011 at 1:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mathew

There's a ton of great possibilities with this, especially I'd they tie it in with the whole Lion and iOS integration. If the trackpad had a layout of apps icons that correspond to the Apps folder, quick-launching Final Cut (or anything) and it's suite of apps would be lightning fast.

Even better if it has tools, say adding a touch-based jog wheel in Final Cut Pro, faders for Logic and Soundtrack, or dynamic scrolls for Color's HSL modifiers. I would buy it not for a trackpad, but just for the macros!

January 20 2011 at 3:39 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

ILIYA

GREAT NOW MY BATTERIES WILL DIE EVEN FASTER.

January 20 2011 at 3:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to ILIYA's comment

aleonell.10

i think the next apple Accessories should have rechargeable batteries. like the playstation 3 controllers

that would be awesome :)

January 21 2011 at 2:18 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Andi

imho the image shows the display magnifying the text the mouse runs over... may be for ocr'ing the sheet.

January 20 2011 at 2:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Andi's comment

Andi

a mouse with a back facing camera oO

January 20 2011 at 3:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

erichd

I want this. I want it now.

Especially if they can put this display on the Magic Trackpad - I could then use a wireless keyboard and have the numpad!

January 20 2011 at 2:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Ilene

Actually, if they used the same 'screen/touch surface' as on the iPhone, I could see it being very useful for displaying and utilizing contextual menus, similar to the AirMouse/Remote that is available on the iPhone/iPod Touch... There are a lot of possibilities to the thought, and making something like that available to developers would help realize some of them.

January 20 2011 at 2:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply