At Computex in May Intel introduced the "Honeycomb Glacier" prototype, a vision of what they believe future gamers, streamers and content creators want in a dual-screen laptop built with multitasking in mind. It delivered a first-to-market form factor. With an infinitely adjustable secondary screen and Tobii eye-tracking to quickly switch tasks, Intel said it’s had an unusual amount of interest from PC makers in the concept design.

In a video report by Sean Hollister of The Verge below, Hollister noted that while Apple has the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro, not many admit to using it whereas with the Intel prototype "it's got a genuinely usable amount of screen real-estate above the keyboard." Check out the video for more.

Hollister touched on Intel's "roller clutch" hinge mechanism that allows a user to prop up the dual displays to a comfortable viewing angle. The point of the hinge brings us to our report.  Patently Apple was first to discover that the U.S. Patent Office published Intel's patent application titled "Hinge Angle Detection," relating to the Honeycomb Comb prototype.

Intel's patent FIG. 5 below is a simplified block diagram of a system to enable a hinge angle detection system.

Intel's patent FIGS. 3 and 4 above are simplified block diagrams of portions of a system to enable a hinge angle detection system.

More specifically, FIG. 3 illustrates gap (#132) existing between the hinge detection engine (#114) and the off-center lobe (#116). As the first housing (#104) rotates relative to the second housing (#106), the distance (#130c) between the hinge detection engine and the off-center lobe changes.

In an example, a decrease in the distance (#130c) increases the capacitance detected by hinge detection engine (#114) and can be used by the hinge detection engine to determine the angle of the first housing relative to the second housing. In some examples, the gap may be a cavity that can be filled with a fluid or other material to help the first housing rotate relative to second housing. The fluid may be a high dielectric oil such as linseed oil. In another example, the off-centered lobe can be hermetically sealed.

Intel notes that patent FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of a portion of an electronic device configured to include a hinge angle detection system. In an example, the off-center lobe may have a heart shaped profile. It should be noted that the off-center lobe can have almost any profile that allows for the condition of the field, flux, radiation, resistance, etc. that can be detected by hinge detection engine to become stronger or weaker as the first housing is rotated relative to the second housing.

While Intel's prototype was running a classic Core processor at Computex, the invention can also support an ARM processor.

Specifically, Intel's patent points to a system on a chip (SOC) architecture. "For example, embodiments disclosed herein can be incorporated into systems including mobile devices such as smart cellular telephones, tablet computers, personal digital assistants, portable gaming devices, etc. It will be appreciated that these mobile devices may be provided with SoC architectures in at least some embodiments."

The patent application further states: "At least one example implementation of the present disclosure can include the device pairing in a local network features discussed herein and an ARM component. For example, the example of FIG. 12 can be associated with any ARM core (e.g., A-9, A-15, etc.). Further, the architecture can be part of any type of tablet, smartphone (inclusive of Android phones, iPhones), iPad,  Google Nexus, Microsoft Surface personal computer, server, video processing components, laptop computer (inclusive of any type of notebook), Ultrabook system, any type of touch-enabled input device, etc.

Intel's patent application was filed in March 2019 with some work dating back to January 2019. The patent was published earlier this month. The invention came from Intel's Indian operation in the Bengaluru Area with three Indian engineers being credited for the invention.

Will this be the next trend in Pro Notebooks over the next two years? More importantly, will Apple use this industrial design or something like it to expand on their tiny Touch Bar? If you have an opinion on this, please send in your comment below.

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