Apple exploring motion-adaptive Mac OS X interface elements

As rumors swirl over Apple’s plans instate changes to the Mac OS X user interface with this year’s release of Snow Leopard, a newly discovered filing shows the company has been exploring the use of user interface elements that change their appearance based on movement.

The 10-page document, published for the first time this week, was filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office less than a month prior to the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard back in October of 2007. Its short list of credits includes some of the Cupertino-based company’s more prominent interface designers holding rich patent portfolios, including Bas Ording, Imran Chaudhri, and Elizabeth Furches.

As for the filing, it describes techniques for generating common Mac OS X user interface elements through the use of multiple graphical layers — or a composite of a base layer, one or more pattern layers, and a shaping layer.

For the complete write-up, hit the link below.

source:appleinsider