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Motorola is one of the pioneers in the foldable phone realm, releasing a clamshell form factor before it was cool just to capitalize on the Razr phone of yesteryear's good name.
It developed the foldable phone concept further by toying around with the specs and pricing to become one of the first to sell bendy handsets under a grand and turn them into a mass market phenomenon, together with Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip line of handsets.
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Moto doesn't stop here, though, and is exploring more ways to develop the foldable clamshell form factor. It has now patented a funky take on the foldable phone hinge that is operated by simply looking at the handset.
The patent that 91Mobiles has unearthed in the USPTO regulatory database is called "Autonomous form factor control of a foldable mobile device," and the contraption does exactly what it says on the tin, namely tilting the phone's halves to adjust to the user automatically.
It seems mainly destined to improve the camera-centric abilities of foldable handsets, as it moves the camera half up or down depending on the angle that a person stares at it. When their face comes closer, the camera half lifts, and vice versa.
Moto's adjustable phone hinge patent. | Image credit – USPTO/91Mobiles
These field of view adjustments are done on a continuous basis no matter which camera the owner wants to use for the occasion, too, and Motorola has thought about all possible scenarios.
The autonomous hinge can move the Razr's half up and down. | Image credit – USPTO/91Mobiles
Motorola uses a combination of Shape Memory Alloys and Linear Resonant Actuators to make the hinge adjust the angle of the foldable phone halves automatically. A powerful processor of the type that does AI calculations is also needed in order to read the imagery from the camera and adjust the phone's folding angle accordingly.
Together with Xiaomi's clamshell patent for a phone that breaks in two, Motorola's invention is one of the more intriguing takes on the future of foldable phone development this season.
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Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena since 2010, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.
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