Apple filed for a patent back on September 30, 2005, but it just now got published. Their latest patent relates to the original iPod touchscreen patent that we documented back in February. This patent is a proximity detector that will sense when an object, commonly a finger, is getting close to the iPod screen. This feature could be useful because the iPod would be able to sense when a finger is getting close to the screen and display a virtual scroll wheel before any contact is made. Hit the linkage for more figures and full, somewhat complicated, description. – Travis Hudson

Inside Apple's latest iPod touch-screen patent filing [AppleInsider]

Contact information for this author is not available.