A new patent has outed Motorola’s work on a self-healing smartphone screen that could use a combination heat and ‘smart glass’ to mend scratches or cracks.
A cracked smartphone screen is definitely a 21st century problem, and manufacturers all the way from LG (with the self-healing G Flex 2) and Motorola (with its shattershield line of smartphone screens) have attempted some kind of marketing stunt to assure consumers that their device will be safe when out and about in the elements.
The good news is, then, that we may not all have to spring for the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Active should we want a sturdy device – new patents filed by Motorola have revealed the company’s work on a self-healing smartphone screen.
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While that might sound like a concept out of science fiction, Motorola’s patent details a plausible idea; leveraging ‘smart glass’ – another term for a glass-like polymer – Motorola’s future smartphones may be able to detect cracks or serious scratches on its screen.
Once a user has given the go-ahead, the smartphone might be able to use its display driver to heat up the screen to a desired temperature, where the molecules that comprise the smart glass will melt – or move – and bend back into their original shape.
While Motorola has been forthright and claimed that the process will likely not be the magic broom to wipe away all our worries in one fell swoop, it has offered that the process could be used to reverse some level of deformation – hopefully meaning that we’ll never have to worry about micro scratches on our smartphone screens ever again.
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What are your thoughts? Would you like to see Motorola bring its patent to life in a future smartphone? Be sure to let us know your opinion in the comments below!
Follow Bryan Smith on Twitter: @bryansmithSA
Source: SlashGear
