Apple have filed a patent for a system controlled by fingers hovering over a surface, rather than necessarily touching it. One potential application for the technology could see it integrated into the capacitive touchscreen of the iPhone, allowing the handset to recognize non-contact gestures, shut off different parts of the display, or highlight specific touch-controls.
The detection of fingers, palms or other objects hovering near the touch panel is desirable, Apple says, because it can enable the computing system to perform certain functions without necessitating actual contact with the touch panel, such as turning the entire touch panel or portions of the touch panel on or off, turning the entire display screen or portions of the display screen on or off, powering down one or more subsystems in the computing system, enabling only certain features, dimming or brightening the display screen, and so forth
The system works by using an array of sensors that track infrared light, from LEDs or OLEDs, and measure its reflection off the user’s hands. Apple describes such arrays either covering the whole display, mapped one to each pixel, or merely on specific hot-spot areas.
Hoppefully OLED?
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