Two years before Microsoft's Kinect made its way into stores, Apple filed a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for similar sounding technology.
The "Advanced Sensor-Based UI" application, first highlighted by Patently Apple, was among 41 "new" patents granted to the company today.
Apple iTV bound?
The use of gesture-controlled sensors could apply to Apple's line of existing products like the iPhone, the iPad and Mac computers.
The patent doesn't drop any new hints as to whether Apple is interested in making the long-rumored Apple iTV. However, that could be because it was filed five years ago.
"Back in 2008, a TV wasn't a priority with Apple," noted Patently Apple. "Yet this technology could equally apply to such a device if Apple wanted it to in the future."
Apple's newly awarded "Advanced Sensor-Based UI" patent may not even make it into a single one of the company's products in the end, even though it has had its fingerprints all over sensors recently.
- If your hands are really tired, Sony may have a VR unit it wants to sell you.
