Week 12, Post 2 — Apple granted patent for Invisible Button

Apple most certainly has become the leader in the smartphone world when it comes to owning patents. Very recently, it got granted a patent for something it had been working on since 2006. It was granted a patent for invisible buttons and slider controls.
While the patent was granted on May 7th, it had been filed nearly 5 years back, on October 24th 2008.
The patent says that the buttons would be made of the same material as the device's housing, and set flush to the surface, indicating the buttons would appear as part of the iPhone bezel.

As the patent describes, "“An input device includes a deflection based capacitive sensing input. Deflection of a metal fame of the input device causes a change in capacitance that is used to control a function of an electrical device. The input appears selectively visible because it is made of the same material as the housing it is contained in and because it is selectively backlit through tiny holes.”
A possibility of a backlight exists which would illuminate the invisible button or slider's location when it is needed, and use a sensor to track the user's motion.