This week, Apple was awarded a new patent by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office called "Electronic Device Protection Mechanism". This mechanism can detect when an iPhone has been dropped, and then use a vibration motor to adjust the center of gravity of the phone to ensure that the screen is facing up when the phone hits the ground.

According to the patent description, this mechanism will use the iPhone's processing power, accelerometer and gyroscope to identify the phone's drop event, and then calculate the descent speed, impact time and rotation speed in a split second, and then use the vibration motor to adjust the phone's center of gravity and rotation state to ensure that the phone's screen is facing up when it falls to the ground.

Although the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus do not have this type of vibration motor, all previous iPhones have it, and the patent states that the motor is powerful enough to do the job, and also describes how to speed up the motor in the event of a fall.

In addition, Apple is trying to use headphones to prevent the phone from falling to the ground. Once a fall is detected, the system can lock the headphone plug into the phone jack and use the ear or clothing to prevent or slow the fall. Conversely, if the phone deems it necessary to separate the phone and the headphone cable, the system can also perform the opposite operation - for example, when the headphones are entangled in something or may drag the phone off the table.

Apple has previously experimented with other ways to protect its phones from drops. For example, a patent obtained in 2013 uses compressed air to spray out when the phone falls to the ground to cushion the impact (like those return-to-the-ground aircraft). Another way is to increase drag and reduce the impact by retracting the wings and popping out the aerodynamic surface. Apple's patent also mentions recycling buttons and switches when falling to avoid damage.

Of course, the above is just Apple's idea. It will probably take a long time to become a reality, and it is not certain that Apple will put it into practice in the future. In contrast, it seems more feasible in the near future to reduce the cost of high-strength screens (such as sapphire screens) or to develop more drop-resistant screens (for example, Corning claims that the fourth-generation diamond glass can reduce the breakage rate of the screen to 20% when dropped to the ground).

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