Apple iPad Patent Brings Bezel Touch Control [Huge iPad Bezel to be Touch-Friendly; Actually Useful]

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You know how it is with patents, don’t you? Most of them are neat published documents that portray some very interesting wizardry related to gadgets and not only. But not all of them actually get implemented. In fact we’ve seen so far many Apple patents which aren’t all employed in our current devices that we’re not surprised to see Cupertino’s newest patent regarding iPad bezel touch-controls come to life.

The patent shows us how the bezel of the iPad could be used to actually control the device. The patent doesn’t refer strictly to the iPad touch and we all know that such a feature is not currently employed by Apple’s latest creation. But the iPad has a pretty large bezel, far larger than the iPhone’s and definitely not very useful.

Should Apple add capacitive touch sensors to it in the near future then the bezel could actually be used in order to navigate easier through the menus of different applications of the device in question, in this case, the iPad.

Apple’s new patent also describes how the device will respond to different touches. The bezel happens to be used for handling the iPad so the software would recognize whether we want to push virtual buttons or we’re simply holding the device in position.

The touch-sensitive areas of the bezel will be paired with on-screen labels which means that the bezel will not have specific controls situated on the iPad’s sides. Furthermore the software will recognize the change of screen position when rotated and it will automatically rotate those labels on the screen in order to be properly displayed on the new screen orientation.

Various shortcuts could also be setup and users will be able to call some specific apps or settings by simply tapping the area around a certain corner of the device.

All this sounds pretty “phenomenal” but we might not see such iPad controls anytime soon. In fact we might have to wait until iPad 2.0 to enjoy a touch-friendly bezel. On the other hand this patent might prove that the iPhone 4G might indeed come with some kind of touch-friendly case, as previously rumored, although it’s too early to speculate on that matter.