While foldable smartphones are gaining some traction in the market, some companies like Samsung (2018 and 2024), Oppo and Apple (01, 02, 03 and more) have been working on possible smartphones with rollable/scrollable displays.

 

This week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a granted patent for Motorola that describes a possible future smartphone with a rollable display. In the U.S., Motorola (owned by Lenovo) ranked as third in the U.S. in Q3-24 and the company stated back in January 2023 that it’s aiming to be the third-largest smartphone vendor in the next three years. Although ridiculous, the company claims that their foldable smartphones have been a positive for the company by entering the premium smartphone market where Apple rules.

Obviously, the flip phone gave the company new life and they may be thinking of another different smartphone form factor, once with a rollable display.

Motorola notes in their recent granted patent that “Irrespective of the geometric form factor of the device, device users generally appreciate and/or prefer devices with a larger display surface area. The size of the device's display(s) is conventionally limited to the dimension of the device housing. Newer design forms provide mechanical configurations that change the size and/or location of the display relative to the housing.”

Samsung’s granted patent covers an electronic device, a method, and a computer program product that will provide a “rollable display device” that has a flexible display which retracts to provide a small form factor for stowing or carrying and is extendable to a larger display size.

When authentication is required, the electronic device supports capturing a fingerprint at fixed finger-on-display areas on the display, at least one of which is aligned, while a blade assembly that supports the display is in either a fully extended position or a fully retracted position, to an underlying fixed finger-on-display location on a device housing of the electronic device.

In one or more embodiments, the electronic device includes a device housing having a front side and a back side. The electronic device includes a front fingerprint scanner exposed at the front side of the device housing at a front fingerprint scanner location.

The electronic device includes a back fingerprint scanner exposed at the back side of the device housing. The electronic device includes a blade assembly having a blade slidably coupled to the device housing and having a flexible display attached to the blade. The blade assembly has first and second fingerprint-on-display areas that are optically transmissive, enabling light from corresponding ones of the front and the back fingerprint scanner to pass through the blade assembly.

The electronic device includes a translation mechanism operable to slide the blade assembly relative to the device housing between a fully retracted position and a fully extended position. In the fully retracted position, the first and the second fingerprint-on-display areas are respectively positioned above the front fingerprint scanner and the back fingerprint scanner. In one or more embodiments, in the fully extended position, the second fingerprint-on-display area is aligned with the front fingerprint scanner.

In one or more embodiments, authenticating the fingerprint may include attempting to match upright and upside-down versions of a captured fingerprint to authentication data for an authorized user.

Motorola’s patent FIG. 1 below presents a simplified functional block diagram of a communication device, shown with front and back views of a blade assembly for a rollable display in a retracted position and a front view of the rollable display in a fully extended position, while capturing a fingerprint of a user for authentication. 

(Click on image to Enlarge)

Motorola’s patent FIG. 3A below depicts a left side view of the example communication device having the blade assembly in the fully retracted position with a user, who is viewing the front display, positioning a finger at a first finger-on-display (FOD) area of the blade assembly, which is aligned with the front fingerprint scanner; FIG. 3B depicts a left side view of the example communication device having the blade assembly in the fully retracted position with the user, who is viewing the back display, positioning a finger at a second FOD area of the blade assembly, which is aligned with the back fingerprint scanner; FIG. 3C depicts a left side view of the example communication device of FIG. 3A having the blade assembly in a fully extended position with the finger of the user positioned at the second FOD area, which is aligned with the front fingerprint scanner when the blade assembly is in the fully extended position.

Motorola’s patent FIG. 8 depicts the blade assembly completely configured with a cover and in an unrolled state; FIG. 9 depicts the blade assembly in a fully retracted state.

The U.S. Patent Office granted Motorola this patent on November 5, 2024 under number 12135587.