14 DAY TRIAL // South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung Electronics is reportedly gearing up for the next episode in the evolution of smartphones, aiming at launching at least one such handset with a transparent display.
Apparently, the company is already hard at work on the device, and it has already filed a patent application for it with USPTO.
The smartphone industry is currently making a turn towards flexible displays, which are emerging on more and more handsets, but it seems that users might not have too long to wait until transparent devices are also launched.
Of course, it would still take some years before these phones become reality, though it’s good to know that leading handset vendors are searching for new ways to innovate.
Samsung’s aforementioned patent application explains a series of touch controls placed on the back of a device that packs a transparent display, as well as the manner in which these could help users perform various actions.
As Patent Bolt notes, users would be able peek inside folders through touching the back of the device, so as to see what it contains, all without having the view upon the screen obscured by the fingers.
Having the touch controls placed on the back would also allow users to easily move overlapping objects, or bring specific info up on the screen, including notes, photos, and more.
Other actions are also possible, such as unlocking the handset, controlling a video playback, and even control the alarm clock, the patent application unveils.
Apparently, Samsung has filed the patent application in the United States in the second quarter of the year, and did the same a year earlier in its homeland market, Korea.
Whether such a smartphone will indeed arrive on shelves, it remains to be seen. One thing that is certain at the moment is that the possibility is real, given that phones with transparent screens already exist. Sony Ericsson launched one back in September 2009, called Xperia Pureness.
