Cracked iPhone Screens May Soon Be Extinct
The end of the unexpectedly cracked iPhone display glass may soon be at hand. A couple of inventors including Prashant Mandlik, Bhadrinarayana Lalgudi Visweswaran, Izhar Z Ahmed and others have drawn up plans for a electronic device display that utilizes a crack detection resistor. Can you imagine an iPhone with the ability to detect a crack in its own display glass, potentially before it becomes enough of an issue that it could slice your skin?
Imagine how helpful it would be to have a strain sensing resistor at the base of your smartphone's display. The idea is very real – detecting changes in the composition of a pane of glass isn't new. Strain sensing in a wide variety of materials has been an area of study for researchers for decades.
Take a peek at the paper Detection of Steel Fatigue Cracks with Strain Sensing Sheets Based on Large Area Electronics by Yao Yao and Branko Glisic (2015) DOI:10.3390/s150408088 to see strain sensing on a massive scale. There they describe strain sensing in steel sheets, aimed at detecting failures in large structures – potentially helpful in the construction of future bridges and skyscrapers.
Apple's USPTO filed patent suggests the company has interest detecting strain on a tiny scale. The abstract for this invention describes "monitoring circuitry utilizing a crack detection resistor." The description mentions flexible display tech, but focuses on the sort of display Apple uses in the iPhone already – rather than expanding to foldable displays.
That's not to say that this tech could not be helpful in a future foldable display for an Apple device. Detection of the strain placed on a display at any given point could lend itself to a variety of UI features within iOS – or it could just be overkill.
In its most basic form, this crack detection system has the potential to allow users to avoid creeping cracks in displays and avoidable injuries done to users who might not otherwise find a split display glass an issue. Imagine an iOS notification that says "Hey, you might not think your display glass crack is a big deal, but it could slice your skin. Would you like to see Apple's display glass replacement options?" That could be a future reality – we shall see!