Tech Shout!

Guess who’s filed a patent application in the US Patent and Trademark Office? None other but the company who took the world by storm with its revolutionary iPhone – Apple. As per the patent, the company is carrying out a research on a 3D remote control system for its Apple TV set-top box that would replicate the functionality of the Nintendo Wii controller and would additionally deliver a few features on the lines of its multi-touch technology. Apple’s remote seemingly includes a photosensor, accelerometer or gyroscope and will have the ability to detect the absolute and/or relative position to an image. However, what sets Apple’s newly patented remote apart from Nintendo’s is that it has the capacity to zoom in on part of an image at will by simply pushing a button. The news about the patent was revealed by AppleInsider.

For a fact, news about Apple setting foot into the gaming arena isn’t new. But all the same, a few of the speculations do suggest that Apple could tie-up with Nintendo to develop something exclusively for the living room. Though this alliance somewhere does seem quite unlikely, Apple surely seems to be “inspired” by the Wii.

Patent application 20080106517 filed in November, 2006, is for a “3D remote control system employing absolute and relative position detection.”

On the basis of the images, it could be deduced that the remote control-like controller allows for full movement. A sensor placed next to the television uses infrared technology to translate that movement in three dimensional terms.
Though there could be a possibility that Apple may be simply developing a point and click remote to make navigating the Apple TV more instinctive, it did mention in the patent that “the absolute x- and y-positions of [the] remote control can be used, for example, in video games to position a user’s character or to otherwise track the movement of the remote control in a user’s environment.” And of course, as per AppleInsider, this 3D remote technology could be used to take off some of what Apple is doing with its software via Multi-touch technology.

The filing states, “[The] remote control system also can include optional console. Console can have controller that can perform some or all of the processing described for controller. Console also can have one or more connectors to which accessories can be coupled. Accessories can include cables and/or, game cartridges, portable memory devices (e.g., memory cards, external hard drives, etc.), adapters for interfacing with another electronic device (e.g., computers, camcorders, cameras, media players, etc.), or combinations thereof.” Now this may involve support with the iPhone or iPod touch, both of which already have motion sensors, and are expected to get some kind of remote control functionality through the iPhone 2.0 firmware. Similarly, the patent maintains that the input could perhaps include a touchscreen, or even the sort of clickwheel used on the iPod classic and Nano.

Only time would tell as to what Apple churns out. Meanwhile, let’s hope that the patent atleast sees the light of the day and doesn’t get stacked up as just “one of the patents” that the company filed someday sometime.