Before people were being locked out of service after unlocking their handsets and suing Apple for price reduction, one complaint about the iPhone seemed to tower over the rest: the touch screen.

A patent recently filed by Apple seeks to improve of some of the shortcomings of the first generation iPhone's screen.

Apple is calling the patent a, "Force Imaging Input and Device System," placing a spring-like layer beneath the screen. Different amounts of pressure applied to the screen would result in the inputting of different data sets.

This is perhaps wishful thinking on my part, but the phrase "spring-like" also brings to mind some kind of tactile feedback for the device, which has long been on of the major complaints about the current model's screen, and really, touchscreens in general.

More patent blue prints can be found over at Gizmodo.