Apple wants to bring touchless control and a curved screen to future iPhones as part of an effort to differentiate itself in a competitive device market, Bloomberg reported.

The former feature would allow users to control the device by gesturing in front of the screen rather than actually touching it. Bloomberg noted changes to the screen would include a display which curves “inward gradually from top to bottom”. Both features are reportedly at least two years away from becoming a reality, Bloomberg sources said.

But Apple appears to have been working on the ideas for some time.

In the years following its acquisition of Israel-based 3D-sensing company PrimeSense in 2013, Apple filed several patents for gesture control. Those include a 2014 patent covering visual recognition of gestures which would allow users to interact with a device without touching it (pictured, below), along with a follow up from 2016 covering 3D hand tracking to enable touchless interactions.

However, the existence of patents do not mean a product is imminent. Apple also filed patents for solar-powered and foldable iPhones in 2010 and 2016, respectively, which have yet to hit the market.

As far as differentiation goes, gesture control isn’t anything new. Samsung debuted an Air Gestures feature in its Galaxy S4 smartphone, which allowed users to check notifications, scroll through web pages and accept calls without touching the screen. Google is also working on touchless gestures as part of Project Soli, a programme which uses miniature radar to detect gestures.