iPhone Birthed From Purchase of Touch Pioneers FingerWorks?

[nepcker]

(John Elias (standing) and Wayne Westerman show their FingerWorks keyboard-mouse combination in 2002. According to a lawsuit, Apple bought their technology and hired them.)

Everyone I know has been blown away by the iPhone. Worried about the touch keyboard, but blown away by the rest. This includes a couple of industrial designers, one whom has worked on Apple projects in the past, and another is a veteran of Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab. The consensus is in: How'd they do it?

So how did Apple go from sci-fi demo and laboratory wonder to shipping product so quickly? Simple. They bought the capability, if Silicon Valley innuendo is to be believed. Engadget reports:

Word is getting out of John Elias and Wayne Westerman, co-founders of FingerWorks, who were struggling to keep their dream of gesture-operated gadgetry alive when the company suddenly closed up shop a year and a half ago. Few doubt Apple snapped up the pair, and with interesting touchscreen abilities of the iPhone, it looks like it found a use for the men in some secretive underground laboratory.

Underground labs rule, don't they? It certainly wouldn't be the first time Apple went outside to build a breakthrough if this report is accurate. The iPod was outsourced to PortalPlayer very late in the game, and the original Mac was swapped to the 3.5" Sony floppy drive at the last minute when the company's own Twiggy drives proved flaky. Glad to see some traditions being kept up!

Some iPhone touchscreen roots 'splained by FingerWorks inventors - Engadget

Also see: UD researchers seen as innovators of iPhone

 

[arn]

There's been a few stories/threads about this

https://www.macrumors.com/2007/01/21/iphone-pc-mag-review-fingerworks-and-jeff-han/
https://www.macrumors.com/2007/01/15/synaptics-clearpad-technology-fingerworks-iphone/

and this one from March 2006:
https://www.macrumors.com/2006/03/1...h-screen-interface-evidence-for-a-tablet-mac/

As a final interesting hint, in July of 2005 a small company called FingerWorks cryptically posted that they had ceased operations as a business. Multiple reports indicated that the company had been sold, but details were scarce. According to individuals close to the company, Apple had indeed purchased the company and related technology/patents. At the time, FingerWorks had offered advanced input devices, including a multi-touch product called iGesture Pad which allowed users to use Gestures to interface with their Mac. At the time it was thought that Apple was interested in touch and click-wheel related technology for the iPod, but the Gesture/MultiTouch technology may have been an important part of the acquisition.