Apple’s eagerly awaited iPhone 5 could incorporate a host of new gesture controls as details of a patent for an iPhone smart bezel are released.

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Apple iPhone 5 video round-up

Source: T3 Tech Videos

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Looking to fully utilise the space surrounding the screen of future iPhone and iPad devices, Apple’s latest patent has outed how ‘side indicators’, a combination of visual indicators and touch-sensitive buttons, could be used to present users with a variety of new control options.

Filed back in 2009, the patent, which highlights how a number of on-screen buttons and commands could be ported to touch buttons on the bezel that would be illuminated when available for use and invisible when not, offers a tantalising look at the company’s plans for upcoming iPhone handsets.

As well as adding additional touch controls to the front bezel of the market leading pocket blower, upcoming iPhone models could, according to the latest patent unveiling host new touch panels on the rear shell allowing users to manipulate menus and on-screen displays from all manner of areas.

Not the first time an Apple patent has leaked featuring information about smart bezel technologies, the latest release offers the most optimistic look yet at the feature’s inclusion on the eagerly awaited iPhone 5, a device tipped to be officially unveiled at this year’s WWDC event set to take place the week commencing June 6th.

Will the iPhone 5 or iPad 3 feature new smart bezel technologies or are such features still a distant pipedream? Let us know what you think via the T3 Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Via: PatentlyApple