Samsung has submitted a patent application for an ambitious holographic smartphone display.
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has published a patent application from the world’s biggest electronics company, offering a tantalising glimpse at a possible smartphone future.
In the patent application, which has been uncovered by Patently Mobile, we find a proposed smartphone device with a screen that projects holograms into the air, immediately above its surface.
It seems to operate in conjunction with a special case, which guides the holographic images through a special letter-boxed light guide.
The accompanying illustration seems to suggest that these holograms would be simple icons – such as animals – rather than detailed scenes. It doesn’t appear to offer a direct representation of what’s playing on the main screen.
Still, the slightly more grounded, practical nature of this patent filing suggests that Samsung is genuinely thinking about how such a feature could be implemented in a modern smartphone format.
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The patent was filed back in the third quarter of 2014. We wouldn’t expect to see such an unusual feature appearing in the Samsung Galaxy S7, if at all, but it’s interesting to learn that Samsung is working on such innovative concepts.
Find out how Samsung’s current flagship phone, the Samsung Galaxy S6, fares against its rivals in the following video:
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.