An Apple patent filing revealed this week seems to suggest the company could be planning to add a 3D user interface or ‘multi-dimensional desktop’ to the Mac experience.
Apple Insider reveals a number of patent images showing that Apple has spent a considerable amount of time outlining a new multi-dimensional interface for Mac OS X.
The Apple patent was submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office back in June 2007 but only revealed this week.
The 54-page filing is credited to Apple employees, Imran Chaudhri, John Louch, Christopher Hynes, Timothy Bumgarner, and Eric Peyton.
The most detailed of those filings is one labelled ‘Multi-Dimensional Desktop’ which depicts a 3D interface by which side walls, a top, and a floor all protrude from a back surface that resembles today's two-dimensional Mac OS X desktop.
Apple Insider speculates at length how the 3D environment including 3D icon stacks and multi-dimensional Finder could work in practice.
Windows in a 3D Mac OS X interface can also be dragged or displaced across one or more surfaces suggests the website.
Apple Insider adds that none of the latest interface enhancements described in the June 2007 patent are present in current pre-release builds of Apple OSX Snow Leopard.
Apple's latest patent shows OS X with a 3D style desktop
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(Reuters)
