Samsung has now filed for and received two separate patents which may hint at future devices that fold and have transparent displays. As always, it’s worth pointing out that the patented technology in question may never end up being utilized at all. Samsung might find another, more effective way to achieve a similar device as those shown or may abandon the idea altogether. Moreover, neither of these concepts is necessarily new even to Samsung. The company has been filing for folding and transparent displays for quite some time and this may just be an effort to protect against potential copycats when it does finally release a folding phone. Having said that, they are interesting nonetheless and show real potential for what could be on the horizon.
The first patent, filed under patent number US009959030 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), applies to a couple of different ways a folding display could be incorporated into a smartphone. Perhaps more importantly, it mentions the use of a “deformation sensor” and “grip sensors.” The second of those is for sensing when and where a user has gripped the company’s smartphone, while the first detects when and how a device is being folded. Judging by the associated technical drawings, the key purpose is to move elements of the U.I. in order to keep them both visible and accessible when the device is folded and unfolded. That way, the device remains usable with relative ease regardless of how it is held or what the orientation of the screens is. For example, if a user bends the screen to fold the device down, all of the icons shown in the drawings move to the screen on the outside. For a slight bend at the center, they move to the edges where the user’s hands have been placed.
The second patent reportedly covers a transparent display, similar to the ones Samsung has already been showing off – most recently with a fully transparent television in 2015. LG Electronics has also taken an interest in getting the technology out first. However, like those concept televisions, there aren’t any guarantees this patent will be put to use. It would presumably effectively be a completely translucent device running Android. That would allow for all of the usual interactions with the display but also for more novel ones. For example, AR apps would not necessarily require the camera since elements could be placed on portions of the display while keeping everything else see-through. That would have a similar effect to AR using the camera and arguably without being quite so system intensive and without other disruptive effects caused that use of the camera.
