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A newly filed Apple patent application suggests the company is still working on a Kinect-style 3D motion tracking system, that could create a virtual desktop responding to a user’s hand and finger movements rather than keyboard and mouse actions. The application, Three-dimensional imaging and display system, describes a system where “user input is optically detected in an imaging volume”: in short, both of a user’s hands are tracked in the space around an Apple computer, and on-screen or projected virtual controls – such as dials, buttons or pens – can be manipulated as if touching them in real life.

The system would operate “by measuring the path length of an amplitude modulated scanning beam as a function of the phase shift thereof” while simultaneously “visual image user feedback concerning the detected user input is presented” Apple’s document suggests. A more simple implementation might track movement in 3D space around the computer and simply show the results on-screen; however, Apple’s application also suggests that audio feedback could be used, such as a clicking as you rotate a virtual knob, or a 3D display using a complex system of projections and mirrors.

Exactly how practical such a setup might be would depend on the intended portability of the computer itself. While a projection box of some sort makes sense with a desktop rig, …

Read the full story here: http://www.slashgear.com/apple-3d-display-kinect-style-tracking-system-still-in-labs-08200872/