Apple could be designing an iPhone with Drop Protection bumpers. One of the biggest fears in owning a mobile computer that can cost anywhere from $300 to over $1,000 is the possibility of damaging the device in a drop. With iPhones being on the more expensive end of the smartphone spectrum, dropping one of those can make anyone’s stomach turn. However, thanks to a new patent registered by the Cupertino company, damaged screens could become a thing of the past.
A new patent has moved through the United States Patent Office suggesting a really nifty way to protect one’s smartphone screen should the device be dropped. Titled as “Active Screen Protection for Electronic Device” the method could make bulky drop protection cases a thing of the past.
From the patent abstract, Apple would use the camera along with sensors from the device — such as the accelerometer — to detect if your iPhone is falling. Such a detection would trigger a number of shock absorbing tabs to come out. Those tabs would pop out thanks to tiny motors and cat like mini bumpers. The bumpers would prevent the screen from making direct contact with whatever it’s about to come in contact with.
The motor would do such a thing by rotating each bumper on an individual hinge. While the company could just be covering their ideas by getting a patent, Apple has been using a lot of its newer patents as of late with the most recent one being the Apple Pencil. Of course, that still doesn’t account for a number of screen shattering drops where the device lands on a corner and seems more specific to this certain drop situation. Also, do the bumpers retract automatically or do you have to reset them yourself?
Regardless, it’s still a neat idea and one I’d like to see the implementation on. What do you think? Is it a novel idea or some sort of silly feature designed just to sell phones? Let us know in the comments below or on social media.
[button link=”http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=20150301565.PGNR.” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: USPO[/button][button link=”http://www.portableone.com/Tech-News/Apple-iPhone-7-could-feature-an-active-display-bumper” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Via: Portable One[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
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