We have seen countless patents from Samsung that illustrate foldable smartphones and now the United States Patent and Trademark Office has published another such patent, but this one details both foldable Galaxy smartphones and tablets. We exclusively told you that Samsung's Project Valley is all about a foldable smartphone, many expect that Samsung will come out with its first foldable device in 2017.
The patent details the execution of different modes via a touch gesture when a foldable tablet is unfolded. For example, a user might touch an icon displayed on the edge display area when they are about to unfold the tablet and the corresponding app will already be launched as they unfold the device. It also shows multiple user profiles might be displayed on the first edge display area enabling a plurality of users to punch in their password using the edge display before unlocking the foldable tablet.
Samsung's new patent illustrates an example of touch recognition in an edge display area, allowing users to control and edge display based on the direction of the foldable device. It even covers a method for controlling a floating display area which is based on the direction in which the foldable device is viewed. Samsung filed this patent application back in November 2015 and has so far not come up with any products that bring these inventions to life, it may be a while before some of what we see here ends up seeing the light of day.
