Apple may have invented an app, or at least a preventative measure that may eventually be built into future iPhones to make them more shatter-proof, notes MarketWatch.
The company has been granted a patent for a mechanism that will reorient the phone in a freefall, which may keep the glass in your iPhone from shattering or cracking, as well as shielding other electronic components such as the camera lens. Patent number 8,903,519 is for a “protective mechanism for an electronic device.”
It would equip the iOS and OS X devices with a processor and a sensor in communication with the processor and a protective mechanism. The protective mechanism would “talk” with the processor and selectively alter a center of mass of the electronic device. Additionally, the electronic device also includes an enclosure configured to at least partially enclose the processor and the sensor.
The patent was initially submitted to the The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in September 2011 and cites Nicholas King of San Jose, Calif., and Fletcher Rothkopf of Los Altos, Calif., as the inventors.