The company is said to be developing a screen that lets a person control some phone features by hovering their finger over it, rather than tapping and swiping, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.
Bloomberg, which cited unnamed “people with knowledge of the matter,” said the technology is in its early stages and may never make it to market. Even if it does, the people said, it would not be for at least two years.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Apple, like many smartphone makers, has been criticized in recent years for its lack of innovation, especially since it is credited with creating the smartphone market with the original iPhone. Even Apple's new iPhone X, which features facial recognition technology and a nearly all-screen front, failed to universally impress reviewers, in that its tech basically matched what other makers had. Changing the way that users interact with screens could offer something new to the market, depending on how it's implemented.
Touchless computer interfaces have been on the want list of most tech-savvy consumers even since the movie “Minority Report” came out in 2002.
Samsung has used sensors in smartphones to give users some ability to control their screens without touching them. Users could wave their whole hands over the screen to flip through images in an album, for example.
Based on the Wednesday iPhone report, it sounds as if Apple is developing screens that could detect someone's finger, rather than the whole hand.
The report also said Apple may be working on curved screens, which other smartphone makers — including Samsung — have incorporated into their designs.
Apple's budget for research and development has been ramping up in the past couple of years, topping $3 billion in the last three months of 2017, according to financial filings. As Apple analyst Neil Cybart of Above Avalon pointed out in 2016, Apple rarely spends more than $3 billion on research and development in a full year, even four or five years ago.
The firm is also reportedly working on a completely new type of screen technology, MicroLED, and may also be developing its own chips to replace the Intel components in its personal computers.
