Last month the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a granted patent for Microsoft titled "Volume adjustment on hinged multi-screen device." In 2019 Microsoft has been granted a pair of hinge-related patents for a folded Surface device and two patent applications on hinged devices that are likely to be a part of Intel's Project Athena that begins to roll out this fall.  

The patent covers eliminating physical buttons to control volume on the exterior of the device much like those on traditional Android and iOS smartphones and having users control volume by simply using on display virtual controls. This will unclutter the exterior finish of the device.  

Microsoft patent FIG. 1 below shows an example overview of a mobile computing device; FIG. 2A shows an example of two display screens arranged in a side-by-side orientation for the mobile computing device of FIG. 1; FIG. 2B shows an example of two display screens arranged in a reflex orientation for the mobile computing device of FIG. 1; FIG. 2C shows an example of two display screens arranged in a back-to-back orientation for the mobile computing device of FIG. 1, and: FIG. 2D shows an example of two display screens arranged in a front-to-front orientation for the mobile computing device of FIG. 1.

Microsoft's patent FIG. 3 above shows a first example implementation of GUI controls for adjusting audio parameters of the mobile computing device of FIG. 1; FIG. 5 shows a third example implementation of GUI controls for adjusting audio parameters of the mobile computing device of FIG. 1.

Microsoft specifically notes that in patent FIG. 3 above you're able to see a user interacting with two different applications on the multi-screen computing device #12 at the same time. In this example, a music application (#40B) is being displayed on the left display device (#24B), while a game application (#40A) is being displayed on the right display device (#24A).

A first graphical user interface (GUI) control (#27A) and a second GUI control (#27B) are displayed on the left display device (#24B).

In this implementation, each GUI control (#27A and #27B) is displayed as a slider control on either or both of the display devices by a computer program (#38 of patent FIG. 1).

The invention allows the dual display devices to use virtual on screen controls to control volume for music or gaming instead of physical buttons like most smartphones do to control audio volume.

Microsoft's patent describes the device having two face cameras in addition to two face side depth cameras. The device additionally has inertial sensors that will turn on the GUI when the user begins to unfold the device to an open position and could support dual speakers.

Microsoft was granted this patent last month. They originally filed for this patent back on June 29, 2017.