Microsoft patent reveals finger and stylus gestures

A while back Microsoft announced that there would be no tablets running on their mobile Windows Phone 7 platform, and to be honest it wasn’t all that surprising considering that they had recently unveiled Windows 8 which seemed to be rather tablet-centric in design. It also appears that Microsoft has a couple of patents filed that point to finger and stylus gestures that may very well be used in future Windows 8 tablets.

The patents in question are over a year old and were filed in January 2010 but were recently published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office. What Microsoft had in mind was for both fingers and stylus to work in conjunction with each other instead of users having to choose between either finger or stylus input.

It is not certain as to what Microsoft has planned for these new gestures but at the moment they seem to be pointed more towards image editing, allowing for cutting, copying and image rotation. Perhaps what Microsoft had in mind was for precision to be achieved with the stylus while finger gestures would allow for more flexibility. The combination could result in a greater degree of flexibility and precision when it comes to image editing on Windows 8 tablets.

While we’ve probably seen more exciting patents, the possibility of a multitouch Windows 8 tablet is something worth thinking about.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Concepts, Tablets
Tags: Microsoft, Patent, stylus, Windows 8