Apple patents "Disappearing Button or Slider" in hardware

It looks like this patent goes a step beyond, and incorporates touch sensing to make that kind of LED into a virtual button.

In 2003, after I unveiled a prototype Linux desktop called Project Looking Glass* , Steve called my office to let me know the graphical effects were “stepping all over Apple’s IP.” (IP = Intellectual Property = patents, trademarks and copyrights.) If we moved forward to commercialize it, “I’ll just sue you.”

My response was simple. “Steve, I was just watching your last presentation, and Keynote looks identical to Concurrence – do you own that IP?” Concurrence was a presentation product built by Lighthouse Design, a company I’d help to found and which Sun acquired in 1996. Lighthouse built applications for NeXTSTEP, the Unix based operating system whose core would become the foundation for all Mac products after Apple acquired NeXT in 1996. Steve had used Concurrence for years, and as Apple built their own presentation tool, it was obvious where they’d found inspiration. “And last I checked, MacOS is now built on Unix. I think Sun has a few OS patents, too.” Steve was silent. - Jonathan Schwartz (http://jonathanischwartz.wordpress.com/2010/03/09/good-artis...)