Samsung has previously been working on a tri-fold folding screen device and has shown off prototypes. Now the company has submitted a new patent related to tri-fold smartphones to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, showing the possible design and working complexity of such devices.
According to Patently Apple, the patent shows a device that uses two hinges to fold the phone and its large OLED screen into three equal-sized parts; essentially turning it from a tablet into a compact smartphone, allowing users to watch photos/videos in tablet mode, use the large screen when browsing the web, and convert it to a “smaller screen” when traveling. A “smaller screen” device.
It is learned from the patent description that Samsung uses sensors and chips in the device’s hinge to identify the state the phone is in. For example, if both hinges are fully open, the sensor will pass the information to the processor, which will then display UI elements in all parts of the screen; if the phone is folded in a way that only one of the three parts of the screen is visible, the operating system will only display the interface UI in that part.
