On October ninth Patent Bolt posted a report noting that Samsung's curved smartphone design patent had come to life. Since that time the US Patent and Trademark Office has published several new Samsung patents about advancing flexible displays. One specific patent that was originally filed in April acts as a foundational patent in that it covers the widest imaginable array of deformable display types that will either flex, fold or scroll.
Samsung states that in order to meet consumer demands for new functions and new form factor displays, an effort to develop new form factor displays is ongoing. One result of this effort is a next generation display apparatus in the form of a flexible display apparatus. The flexible display apparatus refers to a display apparatus that is able to be deformed or deformed into different shapes and configuration like paper or rubber.
The flexible display apparatus could be deformed by a force that is applied by a user and thus may be used for various purposes. For instance, the flexible display apparatus may be used for smartphones, tablet PCs, PDA's and beyond.
The flexible display apparatus will be flexible unlike existing display apparatuses. Considering this characteristic, a method for applying a bending gesture as an inputting means and determining an intended input area of the bending gesture input to the flexible display apparatus is required.
One or more exemplary embodiments provide a deformable display device which can use a bending gesture as an inputting means and provide a different function according to a location where bending is performed, and a method for controlling thereof.
According to an aspect of Samsung's invention, there is provided a deformable display device that includes a deformable display, a sensor which senses a deformation located in a first area of the deformable display and a second area of the deformable display, and a controller which receives deformation information corresponding to the deformation.
Samsung Presents Wide Range of Deformable Display Form Factors
Samsung's patent filing presents a wide range of form factors and range of flexibility envisioned for mobile devices over time. Referring to patent FIG. 55 noted above specifically, the display apparatus 100 includes a body 5700, a display 110, and a grip unit 5710.
The body of this design includes a rotary roller for rolling the display. Accordingly, when not in use, the display is rolled about the rotary roller and embedded in the body.
If the user holds the grip unit and pulls the display, the rotary roller is rotated in the opposite direction to that of the rolling and rolling is released, so that the display comes out to the outside of the body. A stopper may be provided on the rotary roller. Accordingly, if the user pulls the grip unit by more than a predetermined distance, the rotation of the rotary roller is stopped by the stopper and the display may be fixed.
The grip unit and the body may be made of a flexible material so that they can be bent along with the display. The body will include a power supply implemented by using a battery connector on which a disposable battery is mounted, a secondary cell which can be charged and used multiple times by the user, and a solar cell which generates electricity using solar heat. If the power supply is implemented by using the secondary cell, the user may connect the body to an external power source through a wire and may charge the power supply.
Overview of a Future Flexible Display System
Display Bend Buttons
In a secondary patent, Samsung present a tablet with two buttons 3110 and 3120 which could be implemented by using a touch button or other types of buttons besides the mechanical button. The buttons once pressed could deform the device and display.
In Samsung patent FIG. 38 we see that the flexible display apparatus is provided with a changing mode button 3150 in the bezel as noted above.
The changing mode button is a button for changing an operation mode of the flexible display apparatus to another operation mode. If the operation modes include the touch manipulation mode and the bend manipulation mode, the flexible display apparatus toggles between the touch manipulation mode and the bend manipulation mode and changes the mode every time that the user selects the changing mode button.
Other Possible Samsung flexible display formations are noted bellow.
Samsung filed their four patent applications in the US back in Q3 2013 and a year earlier in Korea. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.
Maybe it'll make sense why consumers would want to bend their device displays in such configurations as noted above once Samsung launches them. For now it just looks like Samsung is simply throwing every conceivable form factor into the wind just in case they need it sometime in the future. There are a few hundred designs spread across these four patents. You could view one the four patents here.
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