Motorola has patented a self-healing phone screen

Talk about futuristic phones. Motorola could be working on one such with a self-healing feature capable of mending its cracks. The company has published a patent which goes on to show how a phone identifies cracks on its touchscreen and then heals the crack.

This is done by applying heat to the cracked area using a special material called “shape memory polymer”. This polymer can apparently become deformed and then recovered through a process called thermal cycling which means changing the temperature of the material rapidly.

The heat  required to heal the crack on a phone’s screen can be either the phone’s own heat or the user’s body heat. The patent reveals that the special polymer material can be used over an LCD or LED display.

All this sounds a lot like self-healing back on LG G Flex which is capable of removing scratches with heat. It also bears resemblance with the ShatterField tech as seen on Motorola’s own Moto Z2 Force. So, the new “shape memory polymer” seems to an innovation on this.

Read: Moto G4 and G4 Plus Nougat update

Yes, it does look innovative on paper but practically it might not be as appealing as it sounds. First, the polymer would likely feel more like plastic than glass and won’t have a premium feel. We have already seen this on ShatterShield tech, which also scratches far easily. Second, the patent mentions this process can only partially repair the damage.

Via: MobileSyrup

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