Apple is crazy about the design… in a good way. I’m sure they hate the holes they need to included in the iPhone design to make space for camera, flash and various sensors. According to the new patent we caught, those holes may not be needed in future iPhones thanks to the use of polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) windows.
The mentioned PDLC window is a layer that is able to change its opacity when electric current is applied. In other words, it can be color matched to the surface of the iPhone with all light emitting and receiving parts hidden behind it. Then, when you fire-up some app, PDLC window becomes transparent to enable camera to work as well as some other capabilities like fingerprint sensors.
Design wise, this would enable designers from Cupertino to create uniform surface devices, which let’s face it, would make them look much better.
But that’s not all with PDLC allowing further feature enhancements. For instance, there could be solar cells on the back of the phone which would only be visible when the Sun shines (and when you don’t carry your iPhone in a case).
Sounds pretty promising to me though unfortunately we’ll have to wait for few more years to see something like this in our smartphones. Can’t wait. 😉
[Via: Unwired View]