Dropping a phone and seeing its screen crack is a terrible feeling, but it seems that if Motorola has it their way, cracked screens will no longer be an issue. In a recently discovered patent by Slashgear, it seems that Motorola has filed for a patent for a smartphone display that has the ability to heal itself.
According to the patent, it describes how the phone will be able to detect when there is a crack in the screen, and notify the user about it. The user will then “mark” out the cracked area, after which the phone will emit heat and the display will be able to “heal” itself, or at least reverse some of the damage done to it.
Of course exactly to what extent this healing capability is remains to be seen, plus we imagine that a fully shattered display might be a bit hard to put back together. However for minor scratches and chips, perhaps this could come in handy, or at least heal the phone enough where it could continue to be usable.
Unfortunately as this is a patent, there’s really no telling when Motorola plans to make it a reality, or if at all. However the company isn’t the first to experiment with phones that can heal itself. Several years ago LG launched the G Flex that had a special film on the back that could repair minor scratches. We’ve also seen patents from the likes of Apple which attempts to crowdsource data when phones are dropped that could help create phones with certain areas that are reinforced.