USPTO Grants Apple a Patent on Touch Bezel Controls

By Alexander Grundner | February 2nd, 2010 (0) Comments

Uh, oh. It looks like Apple will soon be the only tablet manufacture able to produce a device with a touch sensitive bezel control interface. (Now it’s starting to make sense why version one the Apple iPad has such a thick bezel, instead of going flush with the display.) According the USPTO website, Apple Inc. filed for the patent (7,656,393) in 2006 and was just granted it today. I must admit… the detailed examples of how the “intelligent bezel” will work are sound — especially given the fact they work universally no matter if the tablet is in a portrait or landscape position. Elements of the bezel include: power (always top-center), menu (always in one of the four corners), up (on left/right side mid-screen), down (on left/right side mid-screen), left-click (center-bottom), select (center-bottom), right-click (center-bottom). What’s more, the touch bezel is able to ignore areas after it has been touched and held in place for a certain amount time. I’m guessing this bit is probably the trickiest part of the technology to get right. Note: the patent is not exclusive to “tablets,” but can be applied to just about any portable consumer electronics device with a bezel and display. Ouch…. I’m wondering how this will affect devices like the Palm Pre which has a bezel finger swipe control? I’m hoping not at all if the functions a touch bezel provides are significantly different than what Apple has diagrammed in its patent. [via]

Electronic device having display and surrounding touch sensitive bezel for user interface and control

Abstract

An electronic device has a display and has a touch sensitive bezel surrounding the display. Areas on the bezel are designated for controls used to operate the electronic device. Visual guides corresponding to the controls are displayed on the display adjacent the areas of the bezel designated for the controls. Touch data is generated by the bezel when a user touches an area of the bezel. The device determines which of the controls has been selected based on which designated area is associated with the touch data from the bezel. The device then initiates the determined control. The device can have a sensor for determining the orientation of the device. Based on the orientation, the device can alter the areas designated on the bezel for the controls and can alter the location of the visual guides for the display so that they match the altered areas on the bezel.

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