Tag: Samsung Patent

Future Front Facing Cameras Could Be Placed Under The Display

2018 smartphones will have thinner bezels than the ones we saw in 2017. Smartphones in 2019 will have even thinner bezels and slowly but surely, smartphone makers will get rid of all the bezels and start making devices with “all screen no bezels” design. That begs the question, where will all the sensors and most importantly, the front facing or cameras go? Xiaomi tried a new position for the front-facing camera in the bottom bezel but, as we said, future smartphones could get rid of all the bezels.

A new Samsung patent has been unearthed, and it reveals a future where front facing camera or cameras will be placed under the display. This patent pushed everything under the display including the earpiece, the proximity and ambient light sensors. While this patent seems futuristic, the way the bezels are being trimmed down and some company’s decisions to place all the necessary hardware in a notch not coming off as an ideal solution, an in-display camera could very well be real in the near future.

Unlike what Xiaomi did with the Mi Mix and Mi Mix 2, this patent shows a traditional placement along the top of the phone. However, if there is a camera that can see through a display, it can be placed anywhere on the display. This is, however, just in theory and whether companies will look to change the traditional placing of the front-facing camera is a question to which only time will answer.

So far, even though it is just a patent, it has hurdles that nobody has decided to solve yet. No company has built a camera so far that can be, even in theory, placed under a display. An early patent, however, suggests using a transparent OLED. With a high refresh rate, the device could flick the screen on and off and allow the camera to have a look during the inactive periods.

As good as this sounds, we are still away from the future of all screen no bezels display. With the in-display fingerprint sensor technology barely coming to the fore, it could be a while before even a prototype with this technology is demonstrated.

January 19, 2018
New Samsung Patent Reveals A Different Foldable Phone Design

As the smartphone industry moves toward a bezel-less era of phones, the fears of a stalemate in terms of design are slowly creeping up. Samsung, however, will soon launch a phone which might be the next big thing in the smartphone industry. The foldable Samsung Galaxy X is expected to be launched early in 2018. While there have been concepts and patent leaks which reveal a futuristic design for the Galaxy X, this new patent of a foldable phone from Samsung might not be an ideal design.

According to the patent, when in an open position, the device looks like someone placed two similarly sized phones next to each other. The frame joining the two displays is made of metal, so it’s not part of the screen. The design is nowhere near the futuristic design that we expect from the Samsung Galaxy X and somewhat resembles the recently launched ZTE Axon M.

ZTE Axon M

While this patent is new, there have been previous leaks that reveal a more impressive design of the Samsung Galaxy X.

A report from the South Korea Herald suggested that the production of the Galaxy X would be on 100,000 orders, making it an extremely limited edition device. If this happens, the Galaxy X would be the most difficult Galaxy phone to get your hands on.

The foldable smartphone is being touted as the “next big innovation” in the smartphone industry, which has been stagnant for a while in terms of exciting innovations.

Samsung is most likely to start small, with a smartphone that folds halfway like a wallet. Another design, in line with Samsung’s prototype unveiling, could see the phone unfold into a full-size tablet.

Samsung is expected to launch the Samsung Galaxy X either with the Galaxy S9 phones or before them at CES 2018 in January.

December 9, 2017
Samsung Might Use Palm Scanning In Its Upcoming Smartphones

A new patent has revealed that Samsung wants to scan a user’s palm to give them password hints in case they forget the password.

Smartphones nowadays have a lot of different layers of security. Samsung phones have a lot of different ways of unlocking them like pin, password, fingerprint sensor, iris scanner and facial recognition. It is clear that Samsung believes that this method is not the most secure since it’s not planning to use palm scanning to unlock the phone. Instead, it will use the method to show hints in the case of the user forgetting the password.

According to the patent, the front camera is used for taking a picture of the palm. This proves that no matter how unique your palm is, it is not the most secure method. But, unlike photos of your face which can bypass facial recognition, someone taking a picture of your palm will be rare.

The patent also suggests that the password hint won’t simply pop up on the screen, instead it will haphazardly scattered across the lines. This is done to add an extra layer of security since a random person glancing at your phone won’t be able to make out the significance of these scattered letters while being simple enough for you to recognise them and recall the password.

Samsung Galaxy S9 Renders

Like a lot of patents, this might just be thrown to the back burners but, considering the technology behind it, Samsung might just introduce it in the next flagship phone. All said and done, Samsung will definitely be focussed on perfecting its 3D facial recognition technology in time for the Galaxy S9 launch in order to compete with the iPhone X and its Face ID.

December 3, 2017
Samsung Is Working On The First Ever Truly Bezel-Less Phone

Samsung has been experimenting with smartphone displays for quite some time now. Who can forget the Galaxy Round in 2013 or the Galaxy Note Edge. Recently, Samsung’s flagship phones come with curved edges and in 2017, the top and bottom bezels were extremely thin as well. However, it appears that Samsung is not satisfied with thin bezels and has started working on an all-display smartphone with no bezels.

A series of new Samsung patents have been published in the WIPO (World International Property Office) database. One such patent dates back to May of 2017 which describes an electronic device with a curved display on both sides of the device. So, no rounded display, but, 180? curved, up to the back of the smartphone.

Along with some sketches demonstrating what the device might look like, it also discusses the production method for such a smartphone. That is a positive sign because a lot of patents just sit at the back burner but, a well thought out production plan means that the company is serious about this.

In one of the sketches, you can see the regular edge display, with a rounded screen. Then there is another illustration of a smartphone with a round edge. The display is bent 180? on both sides and extended all the way to the rear of the phone.

December 1, 2017
Samsung Galaxy S9 Might Have A Feature The iPhone X Should Have Had

Samsung Galaxy S9, despite many reports, might have a screen-embedded fingerprint sensor.

The Apple iPhone X became available to the public in November, just a few months before the launch of the Galaxy S9. One of the most talked about features of the iPhone X has to be Face ID and the lack of a fingerprint sensor. Similarly, the awkward placement of the fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy S8/S8+ was also a talking point for many and iGyaan pointed it out as well in our full review of the Galaxy S8/S8+.

It appears that Samsung will fix that by embedding the fingerprint sensor inside the display rather than positioning it in the middle at the back of the phone. The patent was first reported by LetsGoDigital, which notes that the new technology is likely to appear on the Galaxy S9.

The international patent was submitted in April 2017, while the Korean patent was filed during 2016. This shows that a screen embedded fingerprint sensor has been a long standing aim of the Samsung design team. This looks like the ideal place for the fingerprint sensor instead at the back or completely moving to another way of biometrics like Face ID.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 is expected to be unveiled at CES 2018. As we have reported, the Galaxy S9 will be the first smartphone to have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset, as per a deal with Qualcomm. Other than that, the new smartphone is expected to be an incremental upgrade over the Galaxy S8 although, a screen embedded fingerprint sensor will mean that the Galaxy S9 will grab all the headlines at the time of its launch and might push Galaxy S8 users to upgrade to the Galaxy S9.

November 28, 2017
New Samsung Patents Show What The Future Galaxy Lineup Could Look Like

Samsung has been the number one smartphone maker in the world for a quite some time now. The smartphone industry has been stagnant in terms of innovation in the past few years. We have seen a surge in new “bezel-less” phones but, they aren’t really bezel-less. But, it appears that Samsung has a few new designs up its sleeves for the coming years.

The Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) has been working on batteries that can be recharged in 12 minutes using graphene. That is five times faster than the existing batteries that support fast charging technology but, they still take about an hour to fully charge.

It is not a news that Samsung is working on a foldable smartphone. The Galaxy X is very much a reality and a launch is expected in the first quarter of 2018. Now, a new patent discovered shows Samsung’s plan for a foldable smartphone. The patents show clamshell and candy bar smartphone designs that feature flexible displays and bodies. It will be interesting to see the implementation of the foldable design on the upcoming Galaxy X (tentatively called).

What does seem apparent is that the upcoming foldable Galaxy phone will not have an all-screen design.

Another patent unearthed that belongs to Samsung shows an all-screen display with no cutouts for a camera or any of the sensor. It is worth noting that the Galaxy S6/S7 turned out to be very similar to their patents. So, to believe that an all-screen phone from Samsung is not too far in the future won’t be a stretch.

Galaxy S6/S7 Patent

A new design change like this along with new offerings like a foldable smartphone which will be available to an average consumer might be the ignition that Samsung needs to stay ahead of the constant competition from Apple.

November 28, 2017
Samsung Patent Reveals Functionality Of Foldable Smartphone

The Samsung Galaxy X will be the first foldable smartphone from Samsung. A new patent application by Samsung reveals how the company envisions its foldable smartphone to function.

The two screens will function like a physical split screen wherein each will be running its own app with its own app switcher. This will work in both the portrait and landscape modes.

There is another mode in the patent which chronicles a functionality of the foldable phone similar to the Nintendo 3DS. In certain apps and games, both the displays will be showing different aspects of the interface of that particular app.

Samsung has expressed the difficulties of the shifting a foldable phone from a ‘concept’ to a ‘mass products’.

Dongjin Koh, President of mobile business at Samsung told some reporters at a news conference in South Korea that there are still hurdles to overcome and a possible release would be pushed back if the issues are not resolved in time.

When we can overcome some problems for sure, we will launch the product. We are digging thoroughly into several issues we must overcome, as we don’t want to just make a few, sell a few and be done. We want to hear that Samsung made a very good product. We have a plan to adopt a foldable display in our roadmap.

The foldable smartphone has long been touted as the Galaxy X, which now sounds like a rip-off of the iPhone X which means Samsung will definitely not go with this name. A number of patents as well as Samsung’s own concept video from CES 2013 tell us what to expect from the Galaxy X. Samsung is most likely to start small, with a smartphone that folds halfway like a wallet. Another design, in line with Samsung’s prototype unveiling, could see the phone unfold into a full-size tablet.

November 10, 2017
Samsung Patents Phone With Interchangeable Camera Options

Samsung seems to be on a roll with 18.4 inch tablets to phones that unfold into a tablet. Now reports have emerged about a new Samsung patent. This patent shows different camera options for a phone-like device that include a regular camera, one with a bump and another that seems equipped with optical zoom and an exchangeable lens.

The phone is also drawn in a number of different shapes, suggesting how each phone’s size and shape will be determined by the camera paired with it.

There is another device-design as well which shows something thin like a phone with a thick camera module and a camera-like grip on one end. A shutter-key which is equipped with another button also prefigures on the design.

It is unsure what the future of these devices will be, however it gives us a fair idea of what is keeping Samsung busy these days.

Source

December 11, 2015
Samsung Patent Reveals a Phone that Unfolds into a Tablet

Samsung recently filed a patent with USPTO, which has been revealed today. The patent shows a smartphone that unfolds into a tablet. Earlier this year, reports hinted that Samsung was working on a folding phone under the name ‘Project Valley’. The patent, titled Foldable Device and Method Of Controlling The Same, was submitted to the USPTO on May 26th, 2015.

The sketches on the patent application reveal several configurations of a folding device. One of the sketches also includes some onscreen icons like WhatsApp, Phone, Messages and even an iPod icon. Samsung and Apple have had a love-hate relationship for a while now, and both have been very guarded when it comes to keeping their patents a secret.

The designs, in fact, look quite innovative for smartphone displays, which are currently ruled by square, flat designs. A folding phone would give you access to the display even when the device is folded. Perhaps after introducing the first curved screen on a smartphone with the Round, Samsung plans to take it up a notch with this design. Only time will tell if the Korean manufacturer has something innovating up its sleeve.

December 1, 2015