14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft may have pushed back the release of Surface Andromeda, but this doesn’t necessarily mean the company isn’t thinking of ways to improve the project and eventually bring it to the market at a later time.
One possible way to do this is by offering advanced video calling capabilities that would benefit from the dual-screen design that the device is expected to feature.
A recently spotted patent shows that Surface Andromeda might come with a special approach towards video calling, as the multi-form factor design that it could use may sometime make it more difficult to start a video call given the orientation of screens.
The patent is called “Three-way video calling on hinged multi-screen device” and was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office earlier this month (via WL), proving that there’s a chance Microsoft could still be considering using this tech on Andromeda if it ever gets the green light.
New technology using dual-screen design and multiple cameras
Microsoft explains that the processor would be in charge of collecting information from two different cameras and then display images on both screens of the device.
“A processor may be mounted in the housing and configured to operate in a camera mode in which the processor is configured to process image data captured by the first and second cameras,” the patent reads.
“When a predetermined trigger condition is satisfied, the processor is configured to cause the first display to concurrently display a video feed of the image data captured by the second camera and a video feed of image data received via a computer network from a remote computing device, and to cause the second display to concurrently display the video feed of image data captured by the second camera and the video feed of image data received via the computer network from the remote computing device.”
A patent is by no means living proof that a certain technology is close to entering mass production, and Andromeda itself is still an uncertain project. According to the most recent information, Andromeda could see daylight next year, though Microsoft may also pull the plug on it at any given moment.