In a patent published on Tuesday, Apple seems to be likely to incorporate real-time gestures that would involve hand motions over the device rather than actually touching it.
This may be difficult to visualize, but try and picture everyday gestures such as the "OK" and "Thumbs Up" gesture as being recognizable by the iPhone 5 (or whatever device they decide to implement it with).
These gestures would enable the user of the device to utilize the phone with even more ease than a finger and may be set to enable frequent applications or features.
Wayne Westerman and Myra Haggerty are credited with the hover-technology's patent, which was filed on June 13, 2007.
One question that arises is whether Apple deliberately waited until their devices were efficient and stable enough to handle hover-gesture technology or if Apple's interest in this technology was recent.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is known for publicizing the, apparent, hundreds of patents that went into the iPhone.
However, they have also faced infringement claims by numerous companies that claim ownership of some of its attributes.
It's not certain whether the iPhone 5 will include hover-gestures (especially since the report of the patent was just recently published), but it is still likely that it will be eventually incorporated in an iOS update; or something along the lines of that.
This is still great news for all us iPhone fanatics out there as it just goes to prove Apple's longstanding commitment to constant innovation.
We hope to see this out as soon as possible!