“Of course, as things turned out, Touch ID was indeed incorporated into the OLED Touch Bar of the new MacBook Pro.”
The US Patent & Trademark Office has published six Apple patent applications pertaining to its new keyboard Touch Bar, reports Patently Apple.
Half of the patents, filed in 2013, cover the Touch Bar itself, an OLED screen running along the length of the top of the keyboard that features a dynamically changing interface. The other three patents, filed in September of last year, cover the integration of Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint scanning system into the Touch Bar, but as Patently Apple points out, Apple notes that Touch ID could also be incorporated into other multimodal buttons, such as a camera’s shutter button.
Of course, as things turned out, Touch ID was indeed incorporated into the OLED Touch Bar of the new MacBook Pro. Situated at its right end, it doubles as the device’s power button.
It also may have hinted at what’s to come. While it’s relegated to the very end of the Touch Bar, it points to Apple’s apparent desire to shift Touch ID into the user interface of its devices, with the company expected to be bring the fingerprint authentication system into the display of the next major iPhone.
Source: Patently Apple
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