As the smartwatch market has exploded over the last few months, one of the characteristics of the devices hitting the market is their resemblance to a wristwatch. Whether square-faced or round-faced, the devices share a common inspiration with traditional wristwatches in having a small display held in place by bands. A recently revealed patent application submitted by Samsung back in September 2013 reveals the company may have plans to break out of that mold with a wearable device that is much larger and wraps around the wrist.
The invention described in Samsung’s patent application makes use of a “wide display” sitting on a segmented base. The use of the segmented base means the device could lay flat or it could be curved, like around a wrist or forearm. This ability to support both an “annularly bent state” and a flat state is a key component to Samsung’s application. With even this limited ability to morph into different forms, the Samsung device could function not only as a wearable device providing several communication and information services, it could also function as a multimedia devices for watching images if laid or held flat.
Samsung also made sure their patent application described how a flexible display and flexible touch input layer could be incorporated into the device. This means the display and touch interactions could function properly regardless of whether the display was flat or curved.
The idea of segments being strung together, with a display laid on top, is something we have seen from Samsung before, most recently in a patent application for a flexible phone. This new patent application shows how the same concept could be used for other devices.
source: Patently Mobile
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