Apple has been rumored for a while will leave the notch on the new ones iPhone 14 Pro e Pro Max in favor of a pill-shaped cutout and selfie cam spot. But now theUSPTO – US Patent and Trademark Office – has published a patent application that shows how this novelty is really possible. Here then is revealed one of the most awaited details by Apple fans.
iPhone 14 Pro: a patent reveals the notch reduction
For the uninitiated, Apple first introduced the notch in 2017, with the launch of iPhone X. Inside, the company has included numerous useful components: an infrared camera, a point projector, a flood illuminator, a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, a speaker, a microphone and a front camera. And this makes us understand well why this element is so important. In any case, already with the launch of iPhone 13 Apple has succeeded in reduce the size of the notch by 20% compared to previous models. A reduction made possible by two changes: the speaker and microphone have been moved to the frame of the smartphone, and the Face ID components have been combined.
Credits: Patently Apple
With the Pro models of the iPhone 14, Apple aims to further optimize the size of the notch. And a Patently Apple patent reveals how. “In the patent application, Apple notes that the use of the projector folded in the light can reduce the clutter of the imaging and sensing components of a device to increase the display area of the device, such as a device with frames. In particular, the use of the light bending element can provide greater flexibility for positioning the IR light emitter than the other components such as the IR detector and the front camera ”.
Translated from the complex language of patents, it would appear that Apple has opted to use a prisma. Since the infrared emitter is not positioned in the notch, this can be located laterally, below the display, with a first used to rotate the beam 90 degrees. In this way, the prism would take up less space than the emitter, thus allowing to reduce the size of the notch. Although the procedure is clear, the publication of the patent does not mean that we will really see this technology in the next iPhone 14 Pro. Even if the rumors about the absence of the notch are many.
The Twitter user DuanRui, for example, has recently shared some images that clearly show the design of the new iPhones. In these photos the notch seems to have disappeared, to the advantage of the pill-shaped cutout and the spot for the front camera. A conformation recently confirmed by Ice Universe, albeit with some small changes.
In any case, fortunately, very little is missing from the launch of the new iPhone 14. On 7 September, in fact, we will really know what the appearance of the notch that Apple has reserved for us will be. And we can’t wait to hear about it.