Have you ever dropped your phone? Do you have kids or siblings at your home that use your phone as a toy and you are afraid they might break the screen? Are you careless with your phone? Do you keep experimenting with your phone’s camera while traveling and trekking?
Do you see yourself in any of these situations? Even if you answered no to all the questions above, you would still be super cautious with your phone when it comes to taking care of the screen.
Would you be able to work on a phone like this?
The screens can be protected by a screen guard, and even if it breaks, it can be repaired or replaced. But for that, you need to give it to the store and live without your phone until it is all brand new again.
Will you be able to stay even an hour without your phone, without going through Instagram and Facebook feeds and checking people’s statuses on WhatsApp?
Adding more to the pain is the cost it takes to repair and/or replace the screen. The Broken screen gives you a broken wallet. Not a nice combination.
A survey by Motorola shows some interesting facts on cracked screens.
The survey ‘Cracked Screens and Broken Hearts’ carried the specifics to find out about the one thing everyone is afraid to look over at – cracks on the touchscreen.
Motorola surveyed around six thousand (6,000) adults across six (6) different countries. The results of the survey were surprising. The fact that about 50% of people have experienced this dreadful situation at least once in their lifetime.
Out of the six countries, India stands first with the most cracked displays scoring a 65%. Another surprising fact is that 21% of people on a worldwide scale have a broken screen at the moment.
What might be seeming surprising is dangerous as well. 23% of global smartphones owners continue using the phone, touching, sliding, pressing, and doing regular activities with its cracked screen even if it cuts their fingers.
You are lucky if your screen was never broken but for how long. Did the thought never come to your mind that how cool would it be if the screens never broke? Never did you wonder even after such technological advancements, this hasn’t happened yet?
But, wait! There is something coming up. There will soon come a day when our phones will be able to heal the broken screen faster than we are able to heal our broken hearts.
SCREEN that heals by itself uses heat!
A patent registered by Motorola Mobility LLC was published which explained ways through which the phone could recognize the cracks on the touchscreen and then by applying heat, that certain portion of crack could be healed by itself.
Magic? No, it is Science.
The above statement boils down to the concept of ‘Shape memory polymer’. It is a polymer, or in simple terms a material, that can deform and recover with help of thermal cycling. Thermal cycling is a process where the temperature is changing rapidly.
Let us talk about some science behind this.
The Shape memory polymer characteristics sound similar to elastic properties but it is a step ahead. This polymer was developed at the University of Rochester which changes the original shape by applying heat above room temperature.
What seems even more fantasizing is that even the body heat is capable to transform and change the polymer into its original shape.
The video below explains its powerful applications.
This material could be used over an LCD or LED display with a capacitive touch sensor layered in, as well. Since it is still developing and it seems that it won’t be anytime soon to see this in our devices, we can hope for it to come true in the future. As far as the price is concerned, it is still unsure how much it will be charged. But, at least we know that someone is onto it – Motorola.
The survey on cracked screens by Motorola was an insight into how frequently the screens of the phones get broken and how many people still use them.
Two years after the survey, Motorola recently patented this display which is able to heal the cracked screen with the help of heat. With all these things, we are sure to see some new inventions coming up in the future!
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