Five ways Apple will protect a falling iPhone

Fragile smartphones and short battery life are two of the biggest problems for smartphone manufacturers and consumers right now.

Wouldn't it be nice if your iPhone or iPad rotated in mid-air to protect your screen the next time you drop it? Apple's latest approved patent application hopes to do just that.

In a document approved by US Patent and Trademark Office, the Californian computer giant goes to great lengths to highlight several scenarios in which it plans protect its iPhones, iPads and other mobile device from damage when dropped.

Here's where we break down the technologies presented and explain how they will work.

1. Rotating iPhone screen patent: the vibration motor

The first way Apple hopes to reduce damage works by altering a device's angle on impact.

As detailed in the image below, it uses motion detectors to recognise a fall; determine the current angle of the device; then the distance to surface and calculate projected position at time of impact; finally it would use an internal (vibration alert) motor to alter the angle of impact the least fragile position.

2. Rotating iPhone screen patent: battery ejection

The next way Apple stipulates it can reduce damage to its iOS devices is by breaking up a device when falling.

This is easier to get your head around and has the potential to reduce the severity of damage to a dropped iPhone.

The technology works in much the same way as method one, in that when a fall is detected, the Apple product will react accordingly. The difference here is the device will change its angle through the altered centre of mass caused by removing and/or ejecting a battery.

3. Rotating iPhone screen patent: grippy headphones

This example has actual potential to be implemented in the near future.

Essentially, this would work by a device detecting a fall, to which the headphone jack would respond by contracting and gripping the attached 3.5mm pin.

It would then rely on the wearer's ears to be strong enough to hold then smartphone, or their reactions to be quick enough to catch the flailing headphone cord.

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