KEY POINTS:
Apple's multi-touch gesture patent has been granted.
The company had applied for a patent to cover its gesture-driven touch controls for iPhone and iPod.
This means that companies wanting to use these actions as part of their device interfaces may need to seek permission from Apple.
Realistically, Apple is highly unlikely to allow other technology companies to use one of the iPhone's big selling points in their own devices.
It is understood that other handset makers are moving to secure their own patents, at a time when the technology industry is trying to standardise touch screen systems.
Mike Vena of Synaptics, a company which supplies the laptop industry with touchpad technology, told Wired that it is working on its own set of universal touch gestures.
Apple's multi-touch system uses 'pinches' with two fingers to zoom in and out - an obviously friendly UI inclusion. Double taps zoom into particular areas of the screen, and 'Swipes' move pages or photos left or right, up and down.
The successful patent application could force device makers to create alternative gestures for use on touch screens - and as the technology become more wide-spread it may leave users with radically different UI motions on different gadgets.
Smartphone maker Palm had its new Palm Pre on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, and it uses gestures as part of its touchscreen interface.
Dallas News tech writer Victor Godinez
blogged last week that Apple's Tim Cook made thinly-veiled threats about the company's intellectual property in response to questions regarding the Pre and its interface.
"I don't want to talk about any specific company," Cook told the newpaper's Techblog. "I'm just making a general statement that we think competition is good. It makes us all better. And we are ready to suit up and go against anyone. However, we will not stand for having our IP ripped off, and we'll use whatever weapons that we have at our disposal. I don't know that I can be clearer than that."
Apple's patent app reads: "A computer-implemented method for use in conjunction with a computing device with a touch screen display comprises: detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display, applying one or more heuristics to the one or more finger contacts to determine a command for the device, and processing the command.
"The one or more heuristics comprise: a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a one-dimensional vertical screen scrolling command, a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a two-dimensional screen translation command, and a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a command to transition from displaying a respective item in a set of items to displaying a next item in the set of items."
- NZ HERALD STAFF
