Front-facing Camera and Maximized Display Screen of a Mobile Device
A rare opportunity for smartphone manufacturers to get a unique selling point: Get patent protection for moving the front camera's notch to the corners of the display. Benefits: An uninterrupted status bar, a larger and higher screen area for apps, and the ability to display wide-screen movies using the full width of the display, with no notch getting in the way ... to name just a few advantages! There has been a very positive response from the press.Quotations:
“If this patent comes to life, we could expect an end to the notch problem.”
Gizbot, Technology Site
“... in our opinion, the nicest smartphone with notch that we have seen to date.”
LetsGoDigital Magazine
(See the leaflet below for more quotations.)
Patent holder:
inodyn NewMedia GmbH, Patent Licensing & Sale
In the highly competitive smartphone market, it is important for manufacturers to stand out from the competition. inodyn NewMedia's patented innovation at hand allows just that. Moving the front camera's notch to the corner(s) of the display not only has significant advantages but allows smartphone manufacturers to create unique products that have a clear recognition value and that are different from the mass of smartphones. As today's smartphones have a thin display bezel, it is no longer possible to add a company logo on the front of the smartphone to generate brand awareness. Instead, smartphone manufacturers now have the opportunity to grow brand awareness by using characteristic notches for the front camera with a protected shape and position. Notches at the corners of the display, as shown in the pictures below, are clearly recognizable and can shape a manufacturer's brand. (No other manufacturer will be allowed to use the same notches.) Customers of such a brand will soon recognize that the location of the front camera's notch at the corner of the display has significant advantages, compared with a location at the center of the upper edge:
For example, by moving the notch to the corner(s) of the display, the upper status bar is uninterrupted, your apps can benefit from a larger (that is, higher) screen area, and a feature film can be displayed (in landscape orientation) using the full width of the display, with no notch getting in the way! Please take a look at the leaflet below, which illustrates these advantages and further benefits in pictures.
inodyn NewMedia's patented innovation allows various configurations for sensors and emitters at the corners. For example, a selfie camera can be located in the upper-left corner and a wide-angle camera, time-of-flight camera, infrared emitter, or dot projector can be located in the upper-right corner. A second front camera can be used for wide-angle selfies, a time-of-flight camera can be used for a bokeh effect, and an infrared emitter or dot projector can support advanced face recognition. For an illustration, see the leaflet below. Other configurations are also possible.
Detailed description:
The present invention is targeted at electronic devices with a display screen and at least one front-facing optical sensor or emitter. The electronic device can be, for example, a mobile phone, a feature phone, a smartphone, a phablet, a tablet, or even a smartwatch. The front-facing optical sensor or emitter can be, for example, a front camera, an optical image sensor, an infrared emitter, or another optical component.
In one embodiment, a smartphone has thin borders at all four edges of the display screen. To accommodate optical sensors or emitters in spite of a bezel that is too thin for a front camera, one or more corners of the display panel have a cutout or notch, and the optical sensors and emitters are located in the areas of these cutouts at the corners of the display.
A cutout or notch can be located at one corner, two corners (e.g., the upper two corners, as shown in the pictures), three corners, or at all four corners of the display screen.
The shape of the cutouts or notches can be convex, thereby maximizing the remaining screen area. For example, the basic shape of the cutouts can be a quarter circle, square, or rectangle. Furthermore, the cutouts or notches can have rounded edges. Any other suitable or desired shape is also possible.
In one embodiment, scrollable screen content (in portrait orientation) extends over the entire height of the display, such that the uppermost part of the content is displayed between a cutout at the upper-left corner and a cutout at the upper-right corner of the display. The vertically scrollable screen content may be a social media newsfeed, a web page, or another text. While scrolling through this text in portrait orientation, the length of each text line (that is partially concealed by the cutouts) can be tailored to the shape of the cutouts at the corners by reducing the font width and/or font spacing. This way you get a larger (that is, higher) screen area for your apps. Please take a look at the leaflet below, which illustrates this procedure in pictures.
More information and further examples can be found on inodyn NewMedia's website at: www.inodyn.com
Attached files:
Patents:
US 10,353,426 issued 2019-07-16 [MORE INFO]
Type of Offer: Sale or Licensing
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