Not content with eradicating every port conceivable on its phones, Apple is reportedly tinkering with the concept of no longer using a mouse to track its Mac computers.
Enter: the hand mouse.
Going by the illustrations that Apple included in its patent application filed mid-2020, the device would be a Band-Aid-like wearable that slips onto the user’s finger and enables them to use their hand as they would a mouse.
The patent documents describe a band containing sensors that would detect a wide range of different gestures — swiping, tapping, rotating and so on — and transmit them to another device, like a Mac desktop.
The user could make the gestures against a surface, much like a trackpad, but it also shows that they could also wave their fingers in the air to perform tasks with the help of an “optical distance sensor”.
According to the patent filing, those finger sensors could be combined with other sensors that track the user’s gaze, enabling the person “to navigate a menu on a display, to scroll through a document, to manipulate computer-aided designs” among other actions.
Apple’s progress in developing the finger device is unclear and it’s not certain when such a device would go into production.
