Published today, a new Apple patent provides a preview of how it intends to enhance the multi-touch functions of its next generation of gadgets, which apparently should not cover only iPhones and iPods touch. The invention brings much more ambitious proposals in the production of touch screens, capable of allowing the easy inclusion of this type of technology in computers, reducing the amount of components needed in the manufacturing process and eliminating the need for changes in its shape and dimensions.

In the document released on the new technology, the operation of screen pixels with capacitive, touch-sensitive components is described. This would make the screen as a whole an essential part of the graphic hardware of a computer / gadget and, at the same time, a fundamental component of its touch sensitivity system, where gestures can be made to perform different actions and / or tasks .
This would result in touch-sensitive monitors that do not require much work to be produced, and may be thin enough to deliver gadgets with smaller dimensions and also capable of being deployed on computers, mainly notebooks, but also tablets, computers all-in-one and conventional monitors. This invention makes use of technologies such as IPS (In-Plane Switching) eLTPS (Low Temperature Crystalline Silicon), which may be used in most Apple products in the future.
Although it does not present much news in terms of what is possible via software for the end user, this patent practically represents the outline of the next generation of gadgets with multi-touch functions. In fact, it's past time for Apple to show more progress in this area.
(viaPatently Apple)