Isaiah's Tech

Originally filed on September 5, 2008, the patent application describes a “plurality of circumferentially arranged sensor elements” ordered around “the mechanical push button.” Such a device would allow for “gestures that traverse the center of the scroll wheel,” as well as multi-touch input. Rather than swiping across the display surface, one would swipe across the scroll-wheel for, as an example, Coverflow.

Zooming in and out on a photograph might be accomplished by “one finger touching an inner region of the scroll and another finger rotating in the outer region.” The familiar pinch-and-zoom method is also described, though, and it’s likely that any gesture done on the display of an iPhone or an iPod touch could be replicated on the hybrid scroll-wheel surface.

A new control scheme isn’t the only possibility for the next iPod nano, either. Last month, iLounge reported rumors of the iPod nano getting a slightly larger display and a camera. While rumors and patent applications are not much to base expectations on, new iPods are traditionally introduced in early September. If you need/want an iPod nano now, the current promotion is a good deal, but even the possibility of multi-touch and a camera seems worth the wait.