HTC patents automatic tilting screen, ends shoulder surfing

From our earlier rather practical patent to one that is rather more exoteric. HTC notes that a wide viewing angle on a screen allows for shoulder surfers to read your private information while you are accessing it, and also that a fixed screen angle forces one to constantly adjust the position you hold it every time you move.

HTC intends (at some distant point in the future no doubt)  to solve this problem by using a screen layer that severely limits the viewing angle of the device, and to make up for this by constantly and dynamically adjusting the viewing angle to where your eyes actually are, using a combination of G-Sensors, front-facing cameras that keeps the screen centred on your face and a poorly described control control scheme that used some electronic way to vary the angle (motors would have been so much cooler, but likely a bit of a drag to carry in your purse)

HTC also described a rather more practical application, where the same sensing technology would actually vary the on-screen content by measuring the location of your eyes and face and for example making text smaller when your phone is closer to your eyes and bigger when its further, or producing a skew in the on-screen image that would compensate for the angle of the screen relative to your eyes.

Both of these technologies are rather gimmicky, but as Straighttalk has proven, sometimes a gimmick is all one needs to turn a good device into a great device.

Read the full patents here and here.