Another day, another patent, and if it was any company other than Samsung you could ask why they’re concentrating on so much future tech instead of pushing phones for today out of the door.� However Samsung had dozens of cellphones on show at the Mobile World Congress, and so I suppose feel quite justified playing around with 3D holographic displays; these would take advantage of the advances in rear-projection technology to not only produce a handset far thinner than is currently possible with traditional LCD panels but, by using a 3D hologram screen onto which the images are projected product, models that show depth in addition to height and width.

“Although it has been assumed in the above description that the panel-type waveguide according to the present invention is used as a screen, on which source images emitted by the optical unit are two-dimensionally displayed, the panel-type waveguide may be replaced with a three-dimensional hologram screen so that source images emitted by the optical unit are three-dimensionally displayed on a plane spaced from the hologram screen by a predetermined distance”�Samsung patent

The so-called “panel-type waveguide” is a refracting platter that spreads the projection out onto the display surface; it could be made in non-traditional shapes and sizes, giving manufacturers far more flexibility in cellphone design.

[via Unwired View]