According to the International Business Times, Apple has filed a patent that uses the vibration motor inside an iPhone to shift the device’s weight when falling – saving it from serious damage.
“A patent awarded to Apple by the US Patent and Trademark Office this week, describes a “protective mechanism for an electronic device” and calls on the iPhone’s processing power to recognise a fall, calculate the potential impact, and work at lightening speed to come up with a plan to save the fragile glass screen.”
The patent says that the iPhone could rapidly activate the vibration motor to ensure the device always lands on its back. The IBT report says that this would only require a simple spinning motor alongside the standard gyroscope and accelerometer to work.
This seems like quite a realistic proposition – let’s hope we see it in future iPhones.
Source: International Business Times
Isn’t it just easier to just strap the phone to a cat? Well, aside from the fact that there are better, more durable phones than iPhones 😛