Granted Patent: Flexible Electronic Devices

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to flexible electronic devices and displays.

Apple's patent filing also enlightens us with the fact that bending a future flexible centric iDevice may also allow users to open a specific application, control a game function and so much more.

To make this happen, Apple states that flexible housing members may include housing members with rigid and flexible portions, or housing members that are substantially all flexible. Flexible housing members may include hinges or elastomeric portions that allow the flexible housing members to flex.

Flexible housing members may have portions that provide flexibility in one dimension and other portions that provide rigidity in another dimension. Flexible housing members may have one or more multi-stable flex regions such as bi-stable flex regions for providing two or more stable configurations for the flexible electronic device. Flexible housing members may include fluid filled or air filled pockets for alternately stiffening and flexing the device.

Additionally, flexible internal components may include flexible batteries such as batteries having rigid and flexible portions, batteries formed from multiple rigid portions joined in a flexible joint, and batteries formed from flexible battery layers.

Apple's patent had several key segments covering the following:

• Flex Sensing Components Can Translate into Commands for Features, Apps & Games

• Future Flexible iDevices will be more Resistant to Impacts

• Materials that Could be used in the Casing of a Flexible Display iDevice

See our original patent application report for more patent graphics and details about this invention. 

Apple credits Jeremy Franklin, Scott Myers, Benjamin Rappoport, Stephen Lynch, John Ternus and Justin Wodrich as the inventors of granted patent 8,929,085 which was originally filed in Q3 2011 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office. 

Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of granted patents with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any Granted Patent should be read in its entirety for full details.

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 5am to 7pm MST and sporadically over the weekend.