“The application revealed this week, entitled “External Light Illumination of Display Screens,” notes that current LCD displays can be difficult to view when outdoors in direct sunlight,” Hughes reports. “In addition, it said, it often takes high-powered components to properly light the display. The patent describes a way for a portable computer, like a MacBook, to collect external light to illuminate the computer screen.”
“One described method would employ a ‘light harness,’ which would serve as a collector of light that would then be displayed onto the screen,” Hughes reports. “This could be done by having the harness reflect light toward the back of the display panel.”
Hughes reports, “In addition to the sun, external light could come from a variety of sources, including an accessory light bulb that could be a part of the mobile computer. The application also mentions such a device could be used in a vehicle, with the screen illuminated by a light inside a car.”
More info in the full article, which also features patent application illustrations, here.
Apple- Always ahead of the curve.
Cool, put on my NVG and drop the back for the moonlight and do some covert Internet surfing.
This certainly looks like one of those patents that never see the implementation. As depicted in the diagram, it implies the use of some mechanical light-reflecting contraption, which looks extremely cumbersome and un-Apple.
This may be just one of those things where someone gets a wild idea and the lawyers immediately suggest to have it patented. Or, there may be entirely different, much more elegant and Apple-like way to implement the patent in some future product. Since this is Apple, we should never jump to conclusions.
Soon Steve Jobs will try to patent light, in all its forms.
http://geekcomforts.com/2010/03/apple-nazis-in-disguise/
How soon ’til the ones powered by the reality distortion field are available?
Seems like color balance would be a big problem. Without a consistant backlight color photo editing would be terrible.
Sounds reasonable. The outer shell would rotate away from the back of the display. It would be desirable to filter out the IR. It would also be desirable for the direction of the reflected illumination to be insensitive to relative sun angle. Otherwise you would have to tweak the angle of the reflecting shell relative to the display, and then readjust as lighting conditions changed.
In order to keep the laptop thin, the radius of curvature of the outer shell needs to be large. A Fresnel lens technique with an IR filter mounted in front of a reflective layer on the inner surface of the shell might work.
Would it work, by the light, of the silvery moon, in June?
@Predrag, did you mean to say it will never see the light of day?
It is called a transreflective screen.
The original Mac Portable had that type of screen.