Apple is known for its unconventional solutions and a number of patents, some of which later goes to devices offered on the market. One of the latest ideas from Cupertino has a chance to appear already in successive generations of Apple devices.
I describe it, because I thought it was interesting as much as trivially simple in assumptions and probably also in the implementation. This time, Apple engineers took so trivial element of the phone as physical buttons. Touchscreens are increasingly powerful, but sometimes they cannot replace a mechanical button. And these - have not changed for years. Have you accidentally switch the volume when the phone rests in your pocket? If the idea presented today is realized, it will be the end of the random pressings.
The concept is to mount in the button's casing electrodes, which would detect whether a button is pressed with a finger intentionally or accidentally - for example, with a key resting with the phone in your pocket or purse. The implementation of this solution seems to be as simple as a sketch showing it. May it not prove to be too expensive to produce...
Source PocketNow
