While Apple doesn’t seem to follow in Microsoft’s footsteps and add touchscreens to its MacBook and iMac computer lineup, the company has a different plan to enhance UI navigation, though this is again similar to an idea developed by its long-time Redmond rival.

Apple has been awarded a patent for gesture-based UI navigation on the Mac using technology that looks, feels, and works a lot like Microsoft’s original Kinect.

The patent called “three dimension user interface session control using depth sensor” describes a way to access certain Mac features without even touching the screen, but only using hand gestures. The abstract section of the patent provides more info in this regard:

“A method, including receiving, by a computer executing a non-tactile three dimensions (3D) user interface, a set of multiple 3D coordinates representing a gesture by a hand positioned within a field of view of a sensing device coupled to the computer, the gesture including a first motion in a first direction along a selected axis in space, followed by a second motion in a second direction, opposite to the first direction, along the selected axis. Upon detecting completion of the gesture, the non-tactile 3D user interface is transitioned from a first state to a second state.”

Tech created by the former Kinect team

The patent goes on to describe in detail how the whole thing could work, adding that users could even be allowed to unlock Macs with the help of a pre-defined gesture, just as “raising hand at a specified distance, a sequence of two sequential wave gestures, and a sequence of two sequential push gestures.”

In case you still think this new technology has nothing to do with Microsoft’s Kinect, you should know that the patent was submitted by PrimeSense, a company now owned by Apple and which developed the original Xbox sensor.

Members of the PrimeSense team contributed to the development of Apple’s TrueDepth camera system, and the company might now be looking into ways to implement their own tech into more products.

As with everything that’s still in patent stage, there’s no guarantee such features could ever launch on a device available publicly, but it does provide us with a glimpse into how the company imagines the future of its products.