Apple Acquires Patent For Bendable Display Detection As A Gesture or Cue
The tale of the BendGate situation with the latest iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus having unintended bendable properties has an odd twist to it. It has come to light that Apple has actually acquired or licensed the right to use a U.S. patent pertaining to using signals received via a bendable display to initiate certain actions as a cue or gesture. Therefore, whilst Apple may not have wished that the iPhone 6 range of phones were bendable in the back pocket, they already have designs on what to do when they intentionally market bendy iPhones and iPads and want to include more gesture features into iOS.
How is that for forward thinking?!
Patent By Acquisition
HJ Laboratories originally came up with the patent in 2011 which was refiled in September 2013 by Apple crediting Harry Vartanian as the inventor. HJ Laboratories is a small research firm that began life in 2008. It is not yet known whether Apple has acquired the patent or licensed its properties for use in the Apple business going forward but HJL continues to operate as its own entity. HJL also has a deep focus in the use of indoor GPS known as inGPS and holds a number of patents in this and other technology areas.
Details of the Patent
US Patent number 8,855,727 was originally filed in 2011 by HJ Laboratories, but in the latest filing it is assigned to Apple Computer. It is stated as relating to a mobile device with an adaptive and responsive flexible display.
The idea behind the patent is that the display itself is responsive to being bent in different directions. Depending on the cue, a different trigger can be set which may be linked to system tasks like checking messages, retrieving email or multimedia content including rich text messages with pictures.
Folded or Bent Displays
The patent also covers the possibility of a display being able to be folded or bent in order to initiate a request by the user. The data being collected per the gesture request can then be adjusted in size to reflect the current size and shape of the visible portion of the mobile screen.
Push Triggers
Push triggers for GPS related tasks are also covered which could enable local advertising collection and display, spotting nearby wireless charging stations and alerting owners to it and adjusting MMS messages as required.
In light of developments with Corning now being able to produce bendable glass to match the bendable displays that Samsung has happily shown off at Trade Shows for several years, it can only be a matter of time before bendable display technology is put into the hands of consumers (intentionally this time). However, with this patent acquisition or licensing arrangement by Apple, the company is already trying to tie the hands of competitors like Samsung, HTC, Nokia and Sony in the ways users will be able to use bendable displays to trigger events in Android and Windows Phone handsets. So we could be looking again at another case of U.S. patents being used to restrict fair competition and user choice in the marketplace.
