If Apple have their way you may not have to worry about a cracked smartphone screen again!
According to recently discovered Apple patents the Company
has developed a process called ‘bumpers’ that extend automatically when an
iPhone is dropped.
The patent filed in April 2014 was awarded late last week it
reveals that Apple is working to build retractable ‘bumpers’ into the front of
a future device that will extend if the phone senses it has been dropped.
If the phone then lands with the screen face down, these
bumpers will stop it from hitting the floor and becoming damaged.
Sensors inside the phone, such as the accelerometer, GPS,
gyroscopes and ultrasonic emitter would analyse the phone’s angle of descent in
real-time.
Examples given in the patent include the accelerometer being
able to detect a drop event when it experiences an acceleration.
The gyroscope could do similar by determining the phone has
become unstable, or the camera could detect a drop event by sensing the phone
is in motion based on images it can ‘see’.
These sensors would then send all this information to the
bumpers, which would extend automatically.
And after the sensors detect the phone is stable, no longer
moving and isn’t accelerating, the screen protectors retract.
It’s called ‘Active screen protection for electronic device’
which Apple describes as: ‘A system for active screen protection, comprising
[of] multiple screen protectors rotationally moveable between at least an
extended position and a retracted position.’
This system would also include ‘at least one sensor that
detects when the electronic device is subject to a drop event.’
