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LG Foldable Phone Design With Transparent Display Tipped by Patent

LG Foldable Phone Design With Transparent Display Tipped by Patent

By Nadeem Sarwar | Updated: 11 April 2019 13:57 IST

Photo Credit: USPTO/ LG

G’s foldable phone patent also details a controller to adjust the transparency level of the display

Highlights

LG’s foldable phone patent was filed back in 2015
It shows a device with mostly a transparent display
There will be a small opaque section for internal components

LG has long been rumoured to launch a foldable smartphone that was expected to make its debut at MWC 2019, but the company took a different route and unveiled the LG V50 ThinQ with an attachable display. But it appears that plans of eventually launching a true foldable smartphone have not been ditched. A patent application filed by the LG indicates that the company might be working on a foldable smartphone whose one half will be just a transparent display while a small part of the other half will be an opaque section housing the internal components.

The patent application being talked about here was filed before the United States Patent and Trademark Office back in December 2015, and published on Tuesday, April 9. The abstract of LG's patent application indicates that the device will have a transparent flexible display whose transparency can be adjusted based on the angle between the two halves. The remaining half - which is referred to as ‘transmissive region' - will also have some transparent area and an opaque region that might be used to house the internal component.

There is also the mention of a controller that will be employed to adjust the transparency of the display. However, it is not clear whether the controller being talked about will be a software tool or some button on the device. There might also be a sensing unit that will identify when the device is in a folded or unfolded state. The patent application further mentions that “at least a portion of the first display region extends beyond the end of the second body”.

LG's patent detailing the company's foldable smartphone concept with a transparent display was spotted by LetsGoDigital. The design of the foldable device in LG's patent application is quite futuristic and radically dissimilar to another patent for a foldable smartphone by LG spotted back in 2017. Since this is just a patent application for a concept device, there are high chances that the device might never become a reality and enter mass production in the first place. But with that being said, the concept is certainly appealing and definitely more innovative than what Samsung and Huawei have accomplished with the Galaxy Fold and the Huawei Mate X.

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