Future Pixel Smartphones May Come with Rear Touchpad
 

New patents reveal that someone on the Pixel engineering team is a fan of the PlayStation Vita: it is a real possibility that future iterations of the device may include a touchpad on the backside, just like the Sony handheld. This could be pretty neat, if you think about it: imagine being able to scroll up and down a site with your pointer finger while holding your phone with one hand, or being able to take a photo just by making a flicking motion. ...in one embodiment, the touch sensitive surface is disposed along a rear major face of a device housing. This configuration permits the front major face of the device to accommodate a display. The user can control the device, and data presented on the display, by interfacing with the touch sensitive surface disposed on the backside of the device. Placing the touch sensitive surface on the rear of the device both provides for simpler user operation in one embodiment and leaves the entire front side of the device available for the display so that a finger does not need to occlude the touch sensitive display to interact with the images on the display.

http://www.hardocp.com/news/2017/06/...rear_touchpad/