Last month at Google’s big hardware launch event, the company revealed their premium Chrome OS laptop to the world. It comes in three different versions (ranging from an i5 to an i7) and it is much, much more expensive than the traditional Chromebook that is on the market today. Some feel it may not offer enough to validate its price tag, but Google doesn’t seem to be phased by those comments. In fact, the company was recently awarded a new patent that details an automated and motorized lid for what looks like a Pixelbook.
The patent goes into detail about how it works and it seems to use a number of different sensors to accomplish its goal. The first thing it checks for is to make sure you are near the device. This is likely possible through communications with your smartphone and by checking that the accounts of both devices are the same. Then another sensor waits until the person has touched/tapped a touch-sensitive designated area of the back of the Pixelbook lid. Once this has been detected, the Pixelbook then automatically opens and unlocks the device for you.
At first this seems like a lot of work just to cut out 3.5 seconds of repetitive hassle, but in practice it could be as convenient as the double tap to display feature that most phones have today. Once you get into the habit of doing, going back to the traditional method could feel archaic. It’s interesting to note that the patent doesn’t stop here either. Since we all sit at different angles and distances from a laptop, it wouldn’t be a very good feature if it didn’t open up properly.
Google is also using the camera sensor to look for your face and stop opening the lid at a point it feel is optimal for you. This idea is quite interesting for a market that hasn’t had much innovation lately, and it’s more in-line with the quirkiness Microsoft has introduced via its Surface products. But as always, this is only a patent and it may never make it into a final product.
Source: Patently Mobile
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