Earlier this morning Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple is working with Samsung and LG on a future iPhone with Under-Panel Camera and Zero Bezel technologies." Coincidentally, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially granted Apple a patent today that relates to a trend towards borderless electronic devices with a full-face display. These devices, however, may still need to include sensors such as cameras, ambient light sensors, and proximity sensors to provide other device capabilities. Since the display now covers the entire front face of the electronic device, the sensors will have to be placed under the display stack.

Display With A Transmitter Under An Active Area

An illustrative electronic device of the type that may be provided with a display is shown in FIG. 1. Electronic device #10 may be a computing device such as a cellular telephone (iPhone), laptop computer (MacBook), a computer monitor containing an embedded computer (iMac), a tablet computer (iPad), an augmented reality (AR) headset and/or virtual reality (VR) headset, a device embedded in eyeglasses or other equipment worn on a user's head, or other wearable or miniature device.

As shown in patent FIG. 8 below, the device may include a sensor #13 (camera) mounted behind the display #14 (e.g., behind the active area of the display).

To review the full details of this highly technical invention, check out granted patent 12175907.  A few past patent reports on this subject matter: 01, 02 and 03.