Motorola may be working on a display for smartphones that repairs itself (LNVGY)

Motorola SHS

A new patent recently published by the US Patent and Trademark Office shows that Motorola may be working on a phone that features a self-repairing display, as first reported by Engadget.

The company is envisioning a device that uses a "shape memory polymer" instead of glass, which may be able to reshape itself and return to the original composition by applying heat to a scratched area.

The phone in question would generate the heat by itself, and enter a low-power mode to begin the process — which, Motorola envisions, could be manually kickstarted by the user via a built-in app.

The technology would allow the device to analyse the display's structure, spot anomalies, and slowly use heat to modify the scraped area by remolding it in a way as close as possible to the original.

Motorols SHS dock

The process could be lengthy, so the patent mentions that it could be done overnight while the phone is cradled inside a specially-designed dock. That would give the phone the necessary power for its heat-creating components to keep working without risking that the phone runs out of juice.

This doesn't mean that such a device would be able to self-repair a broken screen, but rather iron out small scratches and minor cuts that may occur when your phone is inside your pocket alongside a pair of keys, for instance.

Motorola already offers shatterproof displays with its Moto Z Force lineup of phones, which offer a much increased durability over regular front panels.

LG, too, made a foray into self-healing smartphones back in 2013, when it launched the LG G Flex in Korea. That device had a plastic coating on the back that worked very similarly to Motorola's device, although its screen was made out of traditional glass.

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