Microsoft has applied for some touchscreen gesture patents including dual screen devices and bezel gestures, a website said. The patents were filed in February 2010.
First in the list are the off screen gestures which take place along the bezel. Some bezel gestures also display a drop down menu when the gesture is performed – something similar also happens in the Android ecosystem and BlackBerry PlayBook as well, so the competitors might be concerned about the Microsoft move. Then there are multi-finger gestures, which can be performed on multiple screens at the same time. Another application talks about usual pinch-to-zoom combined with multi-screen devices.
Another new gesture that Microsoft’s application talks about is multi-screen hold and tap, in which the users can interact with apps through split-screen. In real life, users may hold an icon on one screen and tap another object on second screen — the result is, the first object moves to the second screen where users tapped.
At this point, we need to be clear about it: the patents have not been granted yet, these are just applications by Microsoft.