iPhone 8 may feature bezel-less display, integrated Touch ID as Apple bags patents

US Patent and Trademark Office recently released a list of56 patents granted to Apple Inc including technologies like edge to edge display,Touch ID that is placed under the touchscreen and a portable 3D scanner,reported Patently Apple .

With the iPhone 8 still in development stage, there remainsa good chance that the Cupertino tech giant will incorporate these two screen-relatedtechnologies in its much-awaited smartphone. As Samsung reaped good profitswith its almost bezel-less Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus in Q4, Apple too might walk asimilar path, and even try to go the extra mile.

The edge to edge display patent document talks about makinga touch panel with more than one curved edges and to cover the non-interactivearea of the said device. The patent figure shoes a touch display with two curvedends, supposedly made out of a flexible substrate. This can for screens edgesto be wrapped around the back of the device, covering the otherwise non-touchreal estate present on the phone.

The second technology, Touch ID under the display, talks of abiometric sensor integrated with the touchscreen itself. This eliminates theneed for a separate button for registering and reading fingerprints. Apple maintainedin the patent that this technology can be utilised in iPhones, iPads andMacBooks, present versions of which come equipped with a fingerprint sensor.

The new Touch ID uses an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor whichis taken to be far more accurate than the conventional capacitive one inpractice now.

However, just like the iPhone 8, even these technologies arein their nascent stage and mostly untested for practical uses.

The patent document for the 3D mapping system, as seen onthe tech blog, shows a depth mapping system in the form of a portable Kinectdevice, connected to a computer or smart TV. The 3D mapping engine in thedevice scans the objects in its region of interest, relays the sequence offrames containing the depth data to the computer, which then processes andextracts information from the input. As per the document, this allows users tointeract with content on a computer or television screen in a more immersive manner.

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