Apple Paving the Way for Touchscreen iMac Running OS X and iOS Simultaneously

A newly-published Apple patent application describes methods for achieving a touch-based iMac, with different modes of input, depending on the screen’s orientation.

The computer would transition between touch-based input and mouse/keyboard-based input, by sensing a change in the orientation of its display, the filing explains.

Apple may choose to implement systems for transitioning a single Mac between mouse-driven input  - typical to Mac OS X - and touch-based input - typical to the company’s iPhone operating system, iOS.

The abstract description of the patent is consistent enough to give our readers a good idea of Apple’s forthcoming plans (reproduced below).

"Transitioning between a high-resolution input mode, such as a mouse-based interface, and a low-resolution input mode, such as a touch-based interface, is described.

A change of orientation of a touch screen between a first orientation and a second orientation is detected.

Transitioning between the two input modes and corresponding user interfaces (UIs) is based on the detected change of orientation.

A change of orientation can be detected with one or more sensors, such as an accelerometer, position sensors, etc.

Transitioning from one mode to another can include modifying an item displayed in the UI of the one mode into a corresponding item displayed in the UI of the other mode.

The modifying can include enlarging/reducing, obscuring/unobscuring, moving, etc. For example, an item can be obscured by the visual effect of sliding it off of the screen."

However, the change in orientation can also be detected by a processor based on sensor data received from the sensors, Apple proposes.

“When the processor determines that the orientation of the display has crossed a predetermined threshold, e.g., the orientation of the display has changed from a touch input mode to a keyboard/mouse input mode, or vice versa, the processor can activate a transition process,” the Cupertino-based company outlines.

Apple has been rumored for quite some time to be planning the introduction of a touchscreen desktop computer.

Several recently-published patents indicate Apple is also looking at such possibilities with its MacBook portable computers.