Apple files “swipe gesture“ patent for touchscreens

27 December 2008

Apple Inc., maker of the iPhone and iPod Touch media player, filed a patent application for software that lets users control computers and phones using swipes of their fingers.

Apple's system would allow users to insert spaces, line breaks and uppercase characters by swiping the screen rather than pressing keys, according to the application titled ''Swipe Gestures for Touch Screen Keyboards.'', which was made public by the US Patent and Trademark Office yesterday.

There are four natural swipe movements mentioned. The filing suggests that the OS could use the up swipe for "shift" / "caps", down for "enter" / "return", left for backspace, and right for space. Each of these four functions are commonly used, and being able to supplement the "locate the key then tap it" option with a quick, location-free swipe could improve user-keyboard interaction efficacy.

According to Apple, the touch-sensitive input can include a virtual keyboard area, in which taps of a touch object generate text input.

For example, the method can include detecting a swipe gesture across the virtual keyboard, determining a direction of the swipe gesture, and performing a predetermined function determined by the direction of the swipe gesture.

A swipe gesture can include a touchdown of a touch object followed by a sliding motion of the touch object across the virtual keyboard.