Xiaomi patents in-display front camera to eliminate notch design

Ever since Essential and Apple introduced the notch to the public, smartphones users have a love-hate relationship with it. It really depends on if you prefer thin bezels or not but companies have been trying to eliminate the need for that trade-off. Samsung did come up with the punch-hole camera but it still isn’t the same as the in-display camera.

Samsung did start working on the in-display hidden front camera design a while back and not Xiaomi has jumped on board with their latest patent (via WindowsUnited). The patent titled “Display structure and electronic device” was filed on 30th May and was published on 5th December. The patent describes the in-display hidden camera that doesn’t take up any space on the screen when not in use.

A display structure and an electronic device having the same are provided. The display structure includes a display screen and a light adjusting component located at a light emitting side of the display screen. An operating state of the light adjusting component comprises a light transmitting state and a polarization state, and the light adjusting component comprises a first region and a second region which are independently controllable. The display screen comprises a plurality of independently controllable pixels. Further, when the first region of the light adjusting component is in the light transmitting state, the pixels that are in the display screen and correspond to the first region are disabled to allow light emitted from the first region to penetrate through the display screen.

As we have noted in the past, patents don’t always translate into real-life products but are a good way to judge future innovations. That being said, we do hope that we get to see this patent in action as it would definitely eliminate the need of the notch or even the punch-hole design.