Apple files another patent for… gasp… a multitouch interface!

Apple has shoveled a bunch more coal onto the fire that is the mythical Apple tablet by filing for another patent published for “Gestures for Touch Sensitive Input Devices.”

The patent is clearly for a device with a screen larger than that of the iPhone or the iPod Touch, but small enough to be portable. That’s a long way of saying the MacBook Touch, or at least that’s what I’m going to call it.

Electronista has a great article about how the patent helps Touch-based input be more functional on user interfaces that weren’t originally designed for touch-based input. Some things just don’t work that well with your finger.

As an example of overcoming common size restrictions, the close/minimize/maximize buttons in the title bar would deliberately expand when the user reaches to touch one of them, permitting Apple to use its standard Mac OS X interface without compromising the controls for touch-only users.

The patent also covers things such as on-screen keyboards and pop-up iPod scrollwheel-like controls for music. The interface is made for multitouch. So an on screen keyboard would easily be able to do shortcuts like ‘Command + C,’ and all of the multitouch trackpad shortcuts that MacBook Air and new MacBook Pro users have available to them, such as pinch and rotate.

It should be noted that Apple isn’t required to use any of this, but I can’t help think they’d be crazy not too. I personally believe the long rumored MacBook Touch is an inevitability, but only Steve really knows if or when it will be available. I’m hoping soon. Really soon.

Patent [Apple] Via [Electronista]