See the Self Healing Polymer in Action : The Idea behind Motorola’s Patent for Self-Healing Screen
Motorola surprised the technology world when it grabbed the patent of Self Healing Screen. The display is the most delicate part of the phone and is also very expensive to replace. This patent talks about the screen which fixes itself when it gets a scratch or even when it’s cracked. And then today I read about Self-healing polymers which can repair themselves. The use of these special polymers is expected to get into Robotics industry first, and but then the use case can be anywhere.
So what is so common about both of them? It can repair the damage using heat. While Motorola Patent talks about fixing the screen when a user taps the area of the screen (using body heat I guess), with a special repair procedure is invoked. Now, on the other hand, this special polymer needs 80-degree centigrade to fix the damage. The both are a concept now, but at the core, they are the same.
The patent says that the display can be fixed using shape memory polymers. The phone has to generate the necessary heat (Smartphones are known to produce a lot of heat, sometimes, and probably it can be simulated), and trigger the polymer, and the process to start. I am assuming it will be useful for small cracks on the screen, not fix a badly damaged screen.
The tech is definitely promising, and it has its usage not just for a phone but for any kind of display, even building soft robots and so on. Check out the video below:
