Patented Destruction
Usually, breaking the screen of your television into pieces would be a bad thing (a very bad thing). Now though, Google wants to patent the idea. It sounds strange, but it's an idea that comes with much less broken glass.
The company recently filed a patent application for a tearable screen, one that individuals can break apart and tear-off into multiple portions. Each portion can then be used to display the same content or, if you so choose, different content.
Think of it this way: Don't want to watch the same television show as your roommates? Just tear the screen in half and change the channel on your portion. Or, watch the same show, but enjoy watching it from separate rooms.
Check out the illustration below. In the first image, the same dog appears on the torn screen, and the content adjusted itself. In the second image, different portions of the images are cut-off and used independently.
Uses and Applications
In the patent application, the company describes how this technology could be advantageous. For example, tearing off portions of a display can be used as a way to easily share information. Instead of digitally sharing content, content sharing is now a physical process with a tangible product.
But how does it work, exactly? The word "tear" brings to mind jagged edges that aren't easy to put back together.
This isn't the case with Google's idea. The patent mentions detecting a tear in a display using multiple methods. Its shape and size, for example, can be detected by a broken circuit along magnetic fasteners. Other than that, there will be a strain sensor installed in a tearable display, which will sense separation of a part of a display.
We're still waiting on more details, but won't know more until the patent is approved.
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