[IxDA Discuss] Apple's Gesture Dictionary [PATENT]

[W Evans]

FYI -

I actually did follow up with a Intellectual Property/Patent Attorney this
afternoon. [IF], the patent application, or patent, is in the public domain
- meaning if it was submitted to the USPTO and available for everyone to see
- we can read, discuss, blog about it until the cows come home and lay eggs.
This is exactly why you all have no doubt read the substantive description -
with images - on the Engadget
<http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/02/apple-patent-attack-the-multi-touch-gesture-dictionary/>website,
without Engadget needing to worry about legal jeopardy.

~ Will

-------------------------------------
n:     will evans
t:      A Multi-Touch Gesture Architect
-------------------------------------

On 8/7/07, Will Parker <wparker at channelingdesign.com> wrote:
>
> On Aug 7, 2007, at 6:13 AM, pauric wrote:
>
> > Lisa/Jack: 'can actually you patent a language? Isnt this a patent
> > for a dictionary?'
> >
> > Yup and yup, but there's more than one way to skin a cat.  This
> > patent would seem to make it difficult for users to learn an
> > alternative language if it comes with a non-infringing but hokey
> > dictionary design.
>
> Once again, please tell me how this patent limit the development of a
> robust, open pattern language for gestures? Although Apple clearly
> has certain gestures picked out for early adoption, these are not the
> meat of the patent, which describes a series of designs "merely" for
> the presentation and maintenance of gesture preferences.
>
> > My argument is that while we sit here on verge of a new interaction
> > paradigm, we can go segmented & closed or with a universal language &
> > differentiate on good design.
>
> I think that gestures are in the same state as keyboard shortcuts in
> the mid-80s. Everyone has a different approach, and no one is willing
> to settling on The One True Pattern just yet. It'll come down to
> which gesture set is used on the device(s) that gain market dominance.
>
> Actually, strike that.
>
> The core of the first universal gesture language will be the _default
> set_ provided by the OS for the first popular general-use computer
> equipped with multi-touch. That core set will be enshrined as a
> formal standard much, much later. Not a chance in hell that the
> International Interaction Design Cabal is going to get a chance to
> define a standard early in the game (more's the pity).
>
> > I believe the entity that defines the first universally adopted
> > language will reap greater rewards in the long term.
>
> Should we _really_ get into that whole emacs/vi thing? };->
>
> > Let me turn your question around.  We are going to have a
> > multitouch gesture language for the foreseeable future. How does a
> > closed language benefit Apple?
>
> It doesn't, and the patent doesn't suggest anything of the sort.
> Quite the reverse, as it indicates Apple intends to provide quite
> robust support for user-defined gestures and gesture strings.
>
> BTW, one thing we as interaction designers need to nail down early on
> -- if it hasn't already been done by some previous master of the art
> -- is the language to describe the individual aspects of gestures and
> of gesture sequences.
>
> The language in the Apple patent that sparked this thread leans
> heavily on musical terms, but is this in fact the best way of framing
> discussion of gestures? Are there _other_ commonly-understood domain
> vocabularies that could be adapted as a "handier" set of conceptual
> tools?
>
> - Will
>
> Will Parker
> wparker at ChannelingDesign.com
>
> "I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check. If
> that were the case, then Microsoft would have great products." -
> Steve Jobs
>
>
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