Skip to Content

Apple patent shows new "smart bezel" for tablets

by Kelly Hodgkins Feb 19th 2011 at 9:00PM

An Apple patent was published this week that details a touch sensitive, smart bezel for its tablet devices. The bezel would include touch sensors, pressure sensors, light emitters, haptic actuators and accelerometers. With this array of embedded sensors, a user could touch the bezel and control volume, adjust brightness and more.

This patent also describes the use of the bezel to wake up a device, unlock a device and toggle a device on and off. Such a design could allow for the development of a home button-less iPad, a device that was rumored earlier this year by BGR. The smart bezel is similar to, but more advanced than the touch-sensitive gesture area of the Palm Pre Plus and the Pre 2. This type of smart housing may also make its way into Apple's notebook line where embedded sensors would be used to detect I/O activity.

This is not the first patent to introduce the use of an intelligent bezel in a tablet device. Earlier this month, Apple was awarded a patent for a bezel that controls volume, adjusts brightness, lets a user zoom, and even functions as a game controller. An earlier patent describes touch-sensitive areas that could replace buttons on a device such as the iPad. Together these patents suggest Apple is looking at alternative input mechanisms that could drive the next wave of innovation in the tablet market.

[Via Cnet]



View Tags

Related Stories

Categories

iPad

An Apple patent was published this week that details a touch sensitive, smart bezel for its tablet devices. The bezel would include touch...
 

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum Comment Moderation Enabled. Your comment will appear after it is cleared by an editor.

11 Comments

Filter by:
patent.application2011

Here is a similar story

Folks at AppleInsider have discovered an Apple patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office earlier this week, which reveals that Apple is working on ways to increase the capacity of rechargeable lithium batteries used in iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, MacBooks etc.

February 21 2011 at 3:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TheCastro

So where the hell do my hands and thumbs go? I enjoyed putting them in the middle so it wasn't top or bottom heavy.

Here come the emails from Apple, don't hold it that way.

February 20 2011 at 7:45 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Seb

Anyone forgotten about the MacBook Air's questionnaire to its customers about the need for function keys?! All function keys do are to adjust the light, sound, play/pause, Expose, and escape (a couple of non-issued functions also)... well all this could be done in the bezel and with the UI such as hot-corners.

February 20 2011 at 1:44 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Seb's comment
MRBlue

If anyone dumps 'F' keys it'll be Apple first. Other than Refresh and (for Windows obviously) rebooting to Last Know Good Config function keys serve no purpose.

And as you said features like Expose and brightness will be rerouted to the bezel or maybe a soft key. The only function keys that are really important would be the volume and mute but, again, those could be routed to another spot on the keyboard or maybe be assigned to a letter and pressing a secondary FN key.

February 20 2011 at 10:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kar

Maybe theyll use this on the iPhone 5 to replace the home button and to accomodate that supposed 4 inch screen

February 19 2011 at 11:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
MRBlue

While not to the degree that Apple intends to use the bezel, this is actually one of the main features on RIM's Playbook with multitasking abilities assigned to the bezel.

Seeing it in action I'm not a fan. My iPad gets a little heavy at times so I shift it around to get a better grip or switch hands. Will I be turning the volume up and down or adjusting the brightness every time I shift the weight of the device around? What if I'm in a game and want to adjust the sound? Will it think I'm trying to jump or take me back to the Home screen?

I think all these ideas are great and we have to keep in mind that these patent ideas may never see the light of day and could be nothing more than Apple soaking up all the good ideas so no one else gets them (and there's nothing wrong with that).

I'm sure these ideas are cool but until I see them in action I'm against putting all this stuff onto a surface I'm almost always touching.

February 19 2011 at 11:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Matt

Okudagrams sold separately.

February 19 2011 at 10:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Zippo

This is probably what Apple's going to do with the iPad 2 or 3... so that the home button is always on the bottom, regardless of which way you're holding it.

February 19 2011 at 9:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Zippo's comment
max

hmmmm doesn't something already have it so the main functions are always at the bottom...oh wait i remember the motorola xoomm!!!

March 12 2011 at 1:36 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Sam

Probably not the iPad 2. :P

March 15 2011 at 9:11 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
JustinB

This appears promising.

February 19 2011 at 9:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Buy an ad here

Tweets

© 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.