The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) publishes newly granted patents every Tuesday morning, and today, among other patents granted to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was one for an intriguing arrangements of sidewall displays. This patent envisions a wraparound, flexible display that extends onto the sidewalls of a device as well as its front. One of the major uses for this technology indicated in the patent itself is placing virtual buttons on the edges of a device such as an iPhone or iPad, thus leaving more of the main screen free of icons and touchscreen controls.
The patent, United States Patent #8,723,824, is entitled “Electronic Devices with Sidewall Displays.” This document envisions using one unified, wraparound display that covers the device’s front and then flows around onto its edges, using advanced flexible display materials such as OLED screens and the like. The sidewall display areas, though actually part of the main screen, would be separated from it visually by a slim overlaid frame (e.g. a slim ribbon of metal), a painted on “mask,” or a similar arrangement.
The side areas would not display a continuation of main images, since, for example, this might cause part of a movie frame to appear on the edges of a playback device rather than on its front surface. Instead, they would be programmed to show virtual buttons or icons, virtual switches or sliders, or informational tags (for example, showing data about an iTunes file being played on an iPhone).
The controls along the side of the device are described as being fully customizable by the user, allowing them to place the buttons they need where they need them. The sidewalls would, of course, be part of the wraparound touchscreen and could therefore be pressed, swiped, or pinched to provide haptic input to the device’s electronic “brain.” Apple’s (AAPL) devices could display scrollable lists as well, including webcast lists, video lists, audio book lists, and so on.
Some of the potential button arrangements possible for the sidewall display areas are also delineated in the patent text. When a virtual keyboard was displayed on the main screen, “utility” keys such as Shift, Alt, Caps Lock, Tab, Enter, Delete, and so on could be shunted to the sidewalls to make more room for the QWERTY keyboard. Regular control icons could be moved there as well. Ringer on/off switches, vibrate mode switches, and other controls could be displayed there. Alternatively, the user could switch to a calculator mode with additional function keys along the device’s edges.
The patent application was filed on September 27th, 2011, with Apple Inc. (AAPL) as the assignee. The main inventor is Scott A. Myers of San Francisco, California. Mr. Myers has filed 7 patents since 2008, all of them on behalf of Apple. Other inventors of record include Stephen Brian Lynch and Anthony S. Montevirgen. Mr. Lynch is a prolific worker who has filed 154 patent applications since 2003, 54 of which have been issued. Mr. Montevirgen has 14 filings and 8 granted patents to his name, and has been working for Apple since 2011.
