According to a filing with the USPTO it looks like Apple is looking to extend their touch screen technology beyond the iPhone and use it in a new mouse design.

According to the filing this mouse has a touch sensitive surface that works through a camera inside the mouse viewing an illuminated surface. The changes in illumination due to fingers on the mouse would indicate the “touches”, and pressing harder would signal things like a right or left button press, since this mouse has no buttons.

The touch sensitive mouse would then be able to identify different movements of your hand and fingers on the mouse to indicate different actions of moving or rotating things on the computer. It also could potentially be used as a security and user identification tool by identifying unique fingers, and customizing the user experience and access based on that identification.

It’s hard to say if this is a real product on the way or if Apple is just securing the ideas with the patent office, but its pretty cool either way.

via PCJoint