Motorola’s been granted a patent for a foldable smartphone with a heating hinge

Back in 2016, Motorola filed for a patent that would let them add a heating hinge to its foldable smartphone concept. What good would a heated hinge do? Well, it’ll solve the issue of a permanent crease affecting screens that are folded or straightened constantly. The company’s patent just got granted. While we can’t say this will ever be used for an actual product, it does show us the possibility of this existing.

With this design, it allows for Motorola to use a flexible OLED screen that flexes both inward and outward and can even have more than one hinge. The temperature sensor works even when the phone is off and when it’s folded so when the screen starts to deform because the temperature is low, the hinge heats up to correct this. At the moment, Samsung seems to be the closest one to release a flexible OLED phone, which is slated for a release next year.

Source: GSMArena

Samsung patent suggests AR Emojis might be used for video chats

While Samsung’s AR Emojis have been said to be the company’s response to Apple’s Animoji, a patent Samsung filed back in 2013 and was granted last week suggests there might be another reason why these exist. Samsung foresaw that bandwidth might be an issue when it comes to video chats or live videos and so the company applied for a patent to use 3D models of people’s faces for video chats. As the patent states, “A need exists for a visual communication system capable of displaying the user’s actual likeness, facial expressions, and motion in real time, while reducing bandwidth.” And since AR Emojis are more or less based on a photo of yourself, who knows if Samsung might be interested in letting people use these avatars for video chats.

Source: The Verge

Looks like Essential has a patent for a no-notch screen with a pop-up camera

If you’ve been following the news from MWC 2018, you’ve probably heard of the Vivo Apex, an almost bezel-less concept phone with a pop-up front camera. It seems they aren’t the first ones to think of the idea. A Twitter exchange between an Essential fan named Rafael and Essential CEO Andy Rubin shows off that the company has a patent for the technology. Rafael sent over a Gizmodo article about the Apex and Rubin responded with a link to a Google Patents page that showed Essential filing a US patent back in May 2016 entitled "Apparatus and method to maximize the display area of a mobile device." A follow-up patent is currently pending.

It shows basically the exact thing Vivo showed off and the patent was granted in August 2017. Another implementation shown has the camera placed on the top-left corner of the screen and acts as a permanent camera icon. But, of course, we must remember that even if a patent has been filed it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’ll come to a device soon. But if Rubin was willing to talk about it, perhaps our odds of seeing one in the future might be more likely than we think.

Source: Android Police

Will selfie cameras be hidden behind the screen? Samsung patent seems to think so

Patent drawings showing what it'll look like with the selfie camera, earpiece, and sensors placed behind the screen

With bezels continuously shrinking, placing key components are becoming a bit of an issue. We’ve seen recently how the fingerprint sensor is being moved behind the glass display, are front cameras next? A new Samsung patent suggests so. They take this a step further by moving even the earpiece as well as proximity and ambient light sensors. Xiaomi tried putting the earpiece below the screen with the Mi Mix but it apparently didn’t sound great. But no one has attempted to put the selfie camera behind the glass. We aren’t sure the technology exists just yet.

An early patent, which has been referenced by Samsung, Apple, LG, and others, suggests a transparent OLED that has a high refresh rate and could turn the screen on and off to let the camera have a look during inactive periods. But for now we have to wait and see if this ever comes into fruition. Perhaps it might but it’s too early to tell. For now we need to live with notches and weirdly placed cameras as a response to slimmer bezels.

Source: GSMArena