The patent for pinch and zoom on multi-touch displays is finally granted to Apple.
Quote:
Patent #7,812,826 was first applied for on December 29, 2006, and over the course of the patent process the claims have been significantly narrowed to cover a very specific set of actions:
- A multitouch display detects at least two contacts.
- Those contacts perform a first gesture.
- That gesture adjusts an image in some way: magnification, orientation and rotation are specifically claimed, but the patent is broad enough to cover virtually any adjustment.
- The first set of contacts is broken.
- A second set of contacts is detected.
- The second contacts perform another gesture within a pre-determined period of time.
- The gesture continues to adjust the image in the same way.
Well done US Patent Office, well done. It amazes me how a company is able to patent human gestures now. It seems to me what Apple is describing in their patent is a basic interaction that one would naturally have with a multi-touch display. There are some ridiculous patents being issued nowadays...
ReplyDeleteActually, this doesn't sound like a patent on the pinch zoom.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a patent on how to differentiate between two multitouch gestures made one after another.
Bill Buxton has a nice history of multitouch gestures that shows pinch zooming going back at least to 1984.
http://www.billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html
There's even an old-school video on YouTube there.
"first applied for on December 29, 2006" I wonder if this may be an example of a submarine patent
ReplyDelete