14 DAY TRIAL // There already are so-called anti-smudge display panels, but no one said it was impossible to come up with different or better ones, so Motorola has done just that.
Having a patent, for one, means that you can use an idea without worrying that it will be stolen before you get a product benefiting from it out the door.
It also means that you don't have to pay someone else for the right to use a certain feature.
This is why Motorola decided to come up with an anti-smear display technology of its own, one that is as deliberately vague as one would expect.
In a filing sent to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Motorola describes something that could be part of a display or just an add-on layer.
The bottom line is that the viewable surface of a transparent cover has transparent pedestals projecting from it. Those pedestals have reflective sides that suppress smudges, or conceal them, to some extent.
"A viewable surface of a device, and more particularly a viewable surface of an electronic device, and even more particularly a viewable surface of a transparent cover for a display in an electronic device, includes transparent pedestals projecting from the surface of the viewable surface, the pedestals having reflective sides that conceal, or suppress the appearance of, smudges on the viewable surface," the application reads.
Basically, oils and impurities that somehow make their way to the screen are concealed beneath the raised layers. As a bonus, those layers don't degrade, unlike chemical coatings that become less effective over time and can even get scratched off.
No clue how soon Motorola will apply the technology to its phones and tablets, or if there will be any noticeable price increase because of it. A demo product may or may not be ready by the time Microsoft launches Windows 8.