The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday published an Apple patent for a method of generating and manipulating a three-dimensional object on a computing device, with the process controlled by special gestures made above a touchscreen’s surface.

With the maturation of 3D printing and the emergence of technologies such as the Leap Motion Controller, this is a logical direction for Apple.

The document refers to a device that can detect the location of fingers with a combination of capacitive touch sensors and proximity sensors embedded in the display. These two components can be separate, or the capacitive sensors themselves can act as proximity sensors by measuring the capacitance of a nearby finger.

Proximity sensors mean that the gestures do not necessarily require touch, meaning you might rotate an object by rotating your hand. Tremendous possibilities.