Will Apple give up some iPhone glove?

Sure is getting cold here. Soon I’ll be wearing gloves to keep warm, and that’s where my troubles will begin as people call me up on my iPhone – my touch-sensitive smartphone doesn’t respond well to a gloved hand. (I’d use mittens but I think they look passe). What’s to do? Looks like helps on the way, because Japan’s Hitachi Displays has developed a projection-type touch panel capable of detecting insulators such as plastic and cloth.

Patently Apple informs us that this means next-gen iPhones may let you control them with a gloved hand touch. Better in the cold.

“The new touch panel is still a projection design, but could be operated even while wearing gloves. Users could select icons with the tip of a fingernail, input handwriting with a plastic pen, and enjoy a wide range of other input methods. In short, it overcomes the disadvantages that the technology had suffered from in comparison to resistive films, making possible multi-touch operation with both insulators and fingers.”

There’s no guarantee, of course, that these displays will be used in the iPhone, but given Apple’s focus on delivering cutting-edge products, it is possible.