Apple's next Studio Display could be curved and very secure

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited September 10

Apple has been researching how to make privacy filters to prevent anyone but the user from seeing what's on their curved screen -- but Apple has never made a curved screen.

LG curved ultra-wide Thunderbolt Display
LG curved ultra-wide Thunderbolt Display



You can read too much into Apple's thousands of patent applications, but it's unlikely that the company would research a technology with no intention of using it. The six credited inventors on a new patent application did not cook this up during their lunch hour.

That's especially unlikely as the new application is "Privacy Films for Curved Displays" -- and a version of it was already granted by the US Patent Office in 2023. So Apple is not only exploring the idea of curved screens, it's iterating on the idea.

Except the patent application is not about making a curved screen, it's about one specific thing to do with using them privately. Apple proposes putting a covering layer over the display.

It's like a polarizing film in that it means light can only come out in one direction. So while the user is sitting at the right spot in front of the screen, they see the full retina-quality and full brightness of the display.

But anyone trying to look from even slight to their left or right, will either see nothing at all, or more likely a blurry image. This won't stop anyone standing right behind the user and peeking over their head, and that might actually be a serious issue if someone's seat across the office is positioned just so.

"A privacy film may have a light-blocking layer that is interposed between first and second transparent substrates," says the patent application. "The opaque portions may be shaped to ensure light from the display is directed only to the primary viewer of the display."

Apple's proposal is more sophisticated than affixing an extra coating or layer to a display, however, because the company wants this privacy to be controllable.

"Changes in the operating mode of [the] display to implement angle-of-view restrictions... may be made based on user input or may be made automatically by control circuitry," continues the patent application. "Control circuitry may, for example, use information such as content sensitivity information to determine whether or not content that is being display[ed] on [the] display should be displayed in normal mode or privacy mode."

"If, for example, a user is viewing a movie, the movie may be displayed in normal mode," says Apple. "In the event that a private message such as an incoming text message is detected, [the] display may be placed in privacy mode, thereby ensuring that the content of the text message will not be inadvertently revealed to unauthorized parties."

The patent application concentrates on the complexities of adding such an optional, adjustable privacy filter to a curved display in particular, but it does also include regular, flat monitors.

So if this proposal ever becomes a shipping product, it's at least possible that it will come to flat displays like those on iMac and MacBooks.

It's interesting that Apple is continuing to look at ways of changing how screens display information, because recently it's been looking at replacing screens instead. Or rather, to have it so that a screen appears, say, completely blank unless you are the owner and you are wearing Apple Vision Pro.

Note that a further patent, with the same name and by the same inventors, was granted on September 10, 2024. It could be an admin update or some kind of clerical change as there's no immediately obvious difference in the text, but it suggests that Apple is continuing to pursue the idea.



Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    I like the idea of wide curved screens, but I haven’t seen a single one that isn’t very pixelated (low DPI).
    watto_cobraentropys
  • Reply 2 of 15
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,921administrator
    Samsung has a 7680x2160 curved display that's 57 inches on the diagonal.
    muthuk_vanalingamwilliamlondonForumPostdewmewatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 15
    A few months ago I would have rolled my eyes at the idea of Apple producing a curved display but the idea of visionOS somehow seems to open that door. Not exactly spatial computing, but still better able to represent it in two dimensions. 

    So yeah, this is now in the realm of “possible,” I’d say. Retina 10240x2880, 32:9. 
    edited February 1 ForumPostwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 15
    danoxdanox Posts: 3,303member
    Apple is just innovating behind the scenes, this is something that won't come out until thunderbolt 5, to do it right the bandwidth needs to be huge and so will the price, and get ready for people to complain that it isn't 350 dollars for what will be a top of the product.

    As an owner of the Apple 32" XDR monitor Apple please bring back the big screen iMac in a XDR enclosure before the end of the decade.
    edited February 1 ForumPostwatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 15
    I like the idea of wide curved screens, but I haven’t seen a single one that isn’t very pixelated (low DPI).

    The Studio Display XDR is already 6k widescreen, they'd just be curving the same screen and keeping the high DPI.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 15
    It normally would surprise me that Apples does a curved screen monitor before they do a folding or curved phone, but given Apple is probably suddenly into them for the Vision Pro, it wouldn't surprise me that we see both in the next 2 years.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 15
    I enjoy curved 40" 4k displays @ 110 dpi that scale perfectly with the Cinema/Thunderbolt monitors of yore, and @ 4k they pretty much work with any computer since 2010 and are WYSIWYG for 24x36" large format printing...
  • Reply 8 of 15
    Well at the studio I work for, the designers were given the choice of a flat screen or a curved one. 
    All the designers went for a flat one as we felt they were more accurate, people in advertising went for the curved one. If Apple was to sell a curved screen, it would have to do a lot of communication as, for many people in the field, the curved displays are made for gamers or people doing video.

    The security aspect at an angle...  I would expect it to be at least disableable with the click of a single button. Because while security is indeed very important in an agency, team work is also, therefore it's really current to have someone else sat beside you looking at the same display (when the designer wants to show something the the creative director by example).

    I've been waiting for an update for the last couple of months, but f no proper marketing communication is made, if the security features become an obstacle to efficiency... then I'll just be getting the current Studio Display. 


    I can see how the security feature described here would be really good for an iPhone tho.
    edited September 10 entropysjayb3
  • Reply 9 of 15
    You can read too much into Apple's thousands of patent applications, but it's unlikely that the company would research a technology with no intention of using it. 

    Clearly William does not have a lot of experience working with intellectual property in corporate America. This statement is absurd and uninformed. Companies file patent applications all the time for ideas they have no intention of actually using, for protective (and frankly, anti-competitive) purposes. They do it so that any of their competitors, who in the future may also have the same/similar idea, will encounter roadblocks to bringing a new product to market. Companies like Apple encourage their employees to submit ideas for patents, no matter how viable they would be in a true product; and reward employees with cash bonuses when the legal team files the application and again if it is granted. I have colleagues who crank out dozens of patent ideas per year - they sit around thinking about crazy new "inventions", talk to the lawyers, and a week later an application is filed. So no, do not read too much into any Apple patent application, because the vast majority are from one of these random idea factories.
    programmertht
  • Reply 10 of 15
    eriamjheriamjh Posts: 1,738member
    So we go from “wide viewing angle” to “no one else can see your screen from slight angles”.  

    I hope it’s extra cost because I do not need screen security.  
  • Reply 11 of 15
    eriamjh said:
    I hope it’s extra cost because I do not need screen security.  
    I use my Mac in a small, dark room, so I don't need that feature either. But maybe Apple has big corporate customers who need it. The Nano-Texture glass for Apple Studio Display is an option for several hundred dollars, so the Nano-Privacy glass would likely be a third option.
  • Reply 12 of 15
    no one could afford a wide curved retina apple display.
    entropysjayb3
  • Reply 13 of 15
    but probably not, and all these patents turn out to be for glasses.
  • Reply 14 of 15
    How about they just make a regular old 32" Studio Display that a common man(or woman) can afford.  :)
    danox
  • Reply 15 of 15
    danoxdanox Posts: 3,303member
    jayb3 said:
    How about they just make a regular old 32" Studio Display that a common man(or woman) can afford.  :)
    Apple definitely should make a monitor that is affordable however, there’s a reason why most of the PC world are still using mostly 4K monitors. Anything really good beyond 4K cost money in many cases lots of it, part of the reason why the big screen iMac was so cost-effective you got a really good screen 4.5 or 5K with a with a pretty good computer attached to it. And if you had one of the iMacs that had target display mode it was even more cost-effective.

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/105126 Apple should offer this feature on all future iMacs no excuses and the critics should criticize them loudly if they don’t.
    edited September 12
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