Google files patent for back-panel smartphone touch controls

Touch displays are obviously terrific, but there are times when it would be great to have an alternative way to navigate on our smartphones, especially if we don’t want to muck up our screens with greasy fingerprints. Patent Bolt has found that Google (GOOG) is apparently following Apple’s (AAPL) lead by working on a technology that provides smartphone touch controls on the back panel of the device instead of on the front display. Patent Bolt notes that the back-panel controls would obviously perform simple tasks since it would be difficult to type words if you can see a keypad. However, Patent Bolt says that the controls could allow you to “turn a page of an ebook, article on the web



via Tech News Headlines - Yahoo! News http://news.yahoo.com/google-files-patent-back-panel-smartphone-touch-controls-044623509.html