There’s nothing quite like the fear of shattering your iPhone screen, and Apple knows it.
The tech giant has filed an application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a mechanism that protects a phone’s screen against accidental breakage, Yahoo Tech reported. The system includes a sensor and four retractable bumpers, or “tabs,” located in each corner of the display. When the phone slips out of a person’s hand, for example, the sensor detects the drop and activates the tabs, which extend outward to create a gap between the screen and the ground, acting as a “shock absorber.”
This is basically every clumsy person’s dream. But don’t get too excited just yet: It’s only a patent, which means that there’s no guarantee that Apple will ever add the system to future iPhones.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
