Inside Apple R&D - Apple Patents Realized
Apple’s touch keyboard makes a new appearance on a generous, two-million pixel slab.
There are secrets. Secrets you are not supposed to know about. Suppressed 200mpg automobile engines. Faster-than-light-speed travel technology we scavenged at Roswell. The location of Walt Disney’s cryogenically frozen body. The truth about the Masons. But none of these inspires as much discussion and theorizing as the one to which we turn our attention here: Apple’s next big product.

Apple develops products in an armored sanctuary from which not a word escapes, lest those responsible for the leak face the wrath of Steve Jobs. Call Apple for a comment on an upcoming release and you’ll be lucky to escape with your life.
But even Apple is bound by certain rules, thanks to Uncle Sam: If it wants to prevent competitors from knocking off its hardware, it has to file paperwork to legally protect the design of those gadgets. That means patent forms, full of pictures and descriptions, must be filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, often years before that hardware hits the market.
We unlocked the vault and scoured the USPTO’s database for a hint at what Steve’s next “one more thing” keynote reveal might be. Overall, we sifted through nearly 2,000 Apple patents, spanning 30 years of innovation. The paper cuts and bloodshot eyes paid off through a collection of the coolest, wildest, and weirdest inventions that Apple has ever come up with. Join us as we reveal the most tantalizing and, frankly, mind-boggling patents from the inner sanctum of Apple’s R&D lab, three of which we’ve taken from crude line drawing into the world of 3D mock-up, with our own photo-realistic designs.
Just this once, you’re free to tell everyone what you’ve seen.
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