According to the US Patent office records, last week on January 20th, 2009, Apple Inc. was awarded a patent to what is essentially multi-touch. If I understand the patent correctly this will have far reaching ramifications to the multi-touch industry.


Patent Number:
7,479,949

Patent Title:
Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics

Patent Abstract:
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.

I’m not an expert or even a novice at interpreting patents but as I read it they have patented not only multi-touch in general but also many of the gestures used in iPhone and elsewhere (e.g. Microsoft Surface), such as pinching, swipe, tap, rotation, and others. If this is the foundation of threats of legal action against Palm than its also the foundation of legal threats to all multi-touch devices. It’s scary. I would greatly appreciate comments from people who can clarify the meaning of the patent and its implications.