Image Credits: Mac Rumors
According to a freshly awarded patent application, Apple has advanced its research on smartphones with all-glass casings. The patent, which was discovered by Patently Apple, is titled “Electronic device having glass enclosure” and was given to Apple earlier today by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The study focuses on electronic gadgets with six-sided glass enclosures and glass casings that wrap completely around the item.
Image Credits: MacRumors
Apple’s patent outlines how touchscreen screens are encased “inside the interior volume and positioned next to at least a part of each of the six sides of the six-sided glass enclosure” for devices such as the iPhone. These displays are adaptable to the interior curvature of the enclosure and can support extra touch input areas.
The patent describes how glass may be bent, tapered, and overlapped to form an all-glass enclosure with room for components like speakers and microphones. Apple also recommends that some of the glass surfaces may have distinct textures to distinguish them from neighboring input zones.
Apple described many methods for gaining access to the device’s internals, presumably for manufacturing and maintenance, such as removing a window or what Apple refers to as a “cap” part. This would allow internal components to be slid out in a manner similar to the Siri Remote seen on the newest Apple TV.
Image Credits: Macrumors
The filing also demonstrates how the device’s software might be incorporated with an all-glass design to adaptively adapt predicated on how well the user holds and aligns the device, with such additional information being displayed on the device’s outer edges and UI elements moving around to the surface being interacted with.
Aside from the iPhone, which appears to be the major emphasis of the patent, the application also shows how other products, including the Apple Watch, a cylindrical Mac Pro, and a Mac Pro tower, may have all-glass shells and use their inside surfaces.
Devices with all-glass shells have long been romanticized as the inevitable conclusion of Apple design by some, including former Apple designer Sir Jony Ive. Apple’s patent filings do not reveal the company’s imminent ambitions, but they do reveal some of the company’s specialized areas of R&D.
The new Apple Watch Series 7 has a thicker face crystal. The refractive curving edge of the Apple Watch’s glass, when combined with higher display sizes, provides the effect of the display almost touching the case, in what may be a modest iteration toward the type of design envisioned in this file.
