Apple Patent Reveals Plans for a Smart iPhone Bezel

An Apple Patent application reveals that future iPhones could feature a smart bezel as a secondary display, according to Patently Apple.

Apple intends to introduce a method that employs a very cool secondary display scheme that utilizes a printed segmented electroluminescence display. Apple intends to use the secondary display to introduce a set of new illuminated indicators that are able morph into various controls for work and play. Illuminated gaming and productivity controls could be built into the face-side of the bezel and/or selected back-side areas of iOS devices like the iPad.


The bezel could also be used to guide a user in providing inputs to the device with indicators that changed depending on the current application.

A secondary display could include multiple regions, and one or more of the regions could include multiple segments. Different regions of the secondary display may be selectively illuminated to draw a user's attention to those regions or an area adjacent to those regions. For example, a region of a secondary display may be illuminated to draw a user's attention to an adjacent area of a touch screen. Different segments of a secondary display region may also be selectively illuminated to form indicators that convey information to a user. For example, a secondary display could selectively illuminate a subset of segments to form an indicator instructing a user to provide a certain type of input.

You can find much more detail on the patent application at the link below.