Apple’s iPhone 6 models have been recently criticized for bending in certain places following a specific kind of applied pressure, but a newly discovered patent seems to indicate that some of Apple’s future mobile devices may indeed come with screen-bending features that are anything but an accident. Awarded on October 7th and first discovered by AppleInsider, U.S. patent No. 8,855,727 describes mobile devices with flexible displays that can be bent to trigger certain content-repeated features.
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Titled “Mobile Electronic device with an adaptively responsive flexible display,” the patent reveals that future iPhone and iPad users might refresh the content on their devices by simply flexing the display in a certain manner. Such a gesture will initiate an action on the device that will use a wireless connection to send and receive MMS messages in order to update the content on the display.
The patent doesn’t specify any Apple mobile product by name, but it does mention the fact that the technology can be used on cell phones and smartphones.
In addition to bending in order to refresh content, these mobile devices may also stay folded for a longer period of time, thus altering the shape of the display. In such a case, the content is automatically resized to fit the new screen size. The system could also be used to deliver location-based advertising.
Even though such bending features might not be arriving to future iPhone versions, many other Apple patents have already revealed the company is interested in mobile devices with flexible displays.
Interestingly, the inventor of the technology described in the patent is Harry Vartanian, who cofounded HJ Laboratories, a company that may have been quietly purchased by Apple. The company has been awarded other inventions related to indoor GPS, an area Apple is interested in.
Images from the patent follow below.
