Apple patented the mouse with Force Touch
The house of Cupertino gets the assignment of a patent to produce mouse with Force Touch technology. A natural outcome of the integration process of this feature in the iDevice, started with Apple Watch and continued with iPhone 6S and MacBook.
The US Patent and Trademark Office today published the documentation Confirms That the assignment of the patent granted to Apple mouse with support to the Force Touch technology. A news Confirms That is not surprising and the gradual extension of this functionality to the entire family of Apple devices, from the Apple Watch to get the iPhone 6S / 6S Plus and MacBook / MacBook Pro.
The structure of the mouse described in the documentation attached to the patent application consists of a removable top that transmits the pressure exerted on it to a sensor. The different levels of pressure translate into as many inputs sent to the device it is connected to the device, many more inputs than it can be sent through a single mouse click.
Nothing, particularly revolutionary compared to what Apple itself has not already integrated so far in its products, but a patent is necessary to make a serious claim on the evolutionary path of the input devices of the house in Cupertino. For reference, it is stressed that the patent application was filed by Apple to USTPO early 2013, but was met only now (timing dilated between demand, and allocation are quite physiological).
A mouse with support for Touch Force would help to give greater coherence to all of devices dedicated to OS X devices, operating system, with the range of MacBook and MacBook Pro.
It began to support the Force Touch to expand the methods of interaction with the user interface. At the moment, there is only one Apple device standalone (ie not part of an iDevice) can detect the pressure with Force Touch technology: the reference is to the Magic Trackpad 2, introduced in the autumn of last year with the Magic Mouse 2.
Unlike other patented technologies, as discussed above, it will be integrated in all probabilities in an actual product, since, as said earlier, the company has gradually equipped most of its devices with this function.
The patent does not allow to determine when such integration will take place, but it is possible that the future Magic Mouse 3 annovererà the Force Touch from the list of technical features.
