Apple and an invisible interface

I’m slowly catching up on some stuff I missed while on vacation. Over lunch I read a post about an interface issue concerning touch screens: when your finger is on the screen, you can’t always necessarily see the very thing you were wanting to touch (unless it’s huge, of course). That seems like a reasonable issue, even though I don’t deal with touch screens too often. Apparently, Apple has an idea to tackle the problem by resembling an invisible interface. Meaning all of the touchy-feely stuff happens on the back of the device (they’re using an iPod in this case), while the screen on the front knows, and reacts, to your activity on the back. It seems like it could be a little awkward to use, but innovation often does seem awkward at first. It’s a cool idea nonetheless. And of all the competition, I’d bet Apple to be the company who could pull it off smoothly.