According to a recent patent, Apple would seek to develop a technology capable of closing a folding smartphone or retracting its screen from a roll-up in the event of an imminent fall. A document which even evokes a third hypothetical option: to separate the screen of a foldable in two.
Apple continues to explore avenues for its next folding or rollable product(s). Rumors about the next iPhone or iPad in these formats have been multiplying for several years, based in particular on patents filed by the manufacturer.
But the multinational is waiting, probably trying to find how to stand out as much as possible before embarking on a new market. Spotted by news site AppleInsider, a new patent from Apple published on Thursday, March 16 seems to follow this strategy. “Self-retracting display device and fall detection screen protection techniques“, we read as a title.
Automatically retract screen
You understood correctly: Apple is seeking to develop a technology that would allow future folding or rollable smartphones to automatically “bend or retract at least partiallyif they sense they are about to crash into the ground. Because the advantage of this type of device is also their disadvantage: their state-of-the-art technology is also more fragile in the face of the vagaries of everyday life.
Concretely, a future iPhone or iPad could therefore detect if the speed “vertical acceleration» of the smartphone exceeds the value set by Apple in order to close or retract the screen of the smartphone thanks to an integrated motor. A technology already present on smartphones offering a motorized “pop-up” camera, which also retracts in the event of a detected fall.
Separate the two halves of the screen
Problem: Compared to a small camera module, fully closing the two halves of a large folding smartphone or retracting a rollable screen can take longer than the drop itself. In its patent, Apple nevertheless claims that even if the phone only partially closes, hitting the edges of the screen is still less risky than a flat impact.
In addition, the Cupertino company imagines a technology allowing a foldable smartphone to protect itself even more quickly by separating the two halves of the screen. An infographic from the patent explains that this technology could “activating a release mechanism of a hinge connecting the first screen and the second screen of an electronic deviceat the time of the fall.
According to a diagram of the patent, the two halves could remain connected by the rest of the smartphone, but the two slabs could move separately.
A technology that remains hypothetical
This therefore opens the possibility of an iPhone or iPad with two screens connected by a hinge, a sort of Microsoft Surface Duo in addition to development. However, the technologies detailed by this patent remain experimental ideas. As is the case with many patents, they may therefore never see the light of day in a marketed product.
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