If you need to know that it's possible in order to make it, then it is non-obvious.
Maybe the algorithm is obvious, ie, to do X you need to do steps 1, 2, and 3, but X itself, the basic functional creation that employs the algorithm, is not obvious.
Swipe-to-unlock, the basic algorithm, how to implement it is pretty clear. But matching and researching which gesture works with which functionality, to the degrees customers find it natural took effort and time, and it produced a creation that was not obvious before that research.
Besides, if this is already part of the current rules, why do we need to amend the rules for it? Just enforce the rules better.
It's a great example of another big problem with software patents - the idea that adding "... on a computer" makes it somehow brand new.
"The purpose of the inventive step, or non-obviousness, requirement is to avoid granting patents for inventions which only follow from "normal product design and development", ..."
What you described for swipe-to-unlock is very much the normal product design and development process, so doesn't (well, _shouldn't_) qualify it for patent protection.
And yes, I agree: the rules DO need to be enforced better.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventive_step_and_non-obviousn...
In fact, the law as described by Barton in the earlier section of his paper shows that the non-obviousness criterion was deliberately weakened over time, specifically when the Patent Act was passed in 1952 that eliminated a requirement for a "flash of creative genius."
Anyway, I am not a law expert. I am an entrepreneur. My interest is to be able to invent without fear that after I invented and researched and showed that some form of product was viable, some large company (Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc) or a competitor or any other group would then replicate it, claiming to have arrived at the product independently. The bottom line is that it wouldn't foster innovation, it would hinder it. I would have no incentive under the patent system to go to investors and secure funds to do research if in the small chance that the research is fruitful, I will not be able to protect it.
[1] Draft version of Barton's article: http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/bhhall/ipconf/Barton901.pdf