Self-Healing-Phone-Display Not in the Science Fiction Realm

Bits Logics Team . 11th Oct 2023

• CSS Insight predicts that phone makers could create self-healing phone displays in five years. 
• Self-healing phone displays are not in the science fiction realm, says Wood.
• Wood declares that the self-healing was applicable for cosmetic scratches.

The Global Authority Body for the field of technology, CCS Insight, predicted that within the next five years, there would be smartphone phones with self-healing displays. As per reports, the technology is such that a nano-coating would be used to cover the surface of the display. Once, the nano-coating is scratched, it will expose a material which when in contact with air will fill the imperfection. 

CCS Insights’ personnel, Wood, while expounding the feasibility of this healing technology stated: 

“This is not in the realms of science fiction, it can be done,”.

LG, the South Korean consumer electronics giant, was one company that bragged about self-healing technology in its smartphones as far back as 2013. Moreover, the company released a smartphone called the G Flex which featured a vertically curved screen and a “self-healing” coating on the back cover. However, it wasn’t clearly explained as to how exactly the technology worked at the time.

Back in 2017, Motorola applied for a patent for a “shape memory polymer” screen which when cracked was able to restore and repair itself. For the uninitiated, Shape-Memory Polymers (SMPs) are considered a kind of smart material able to modify the size, shape, stiffness, or strain in response to different external (heat, electric and magnetic field, water or light) stimuli including physiological ones such as pH, body temperature and ion concentration. 

However, to clear the masses of the unrealistic expectations of this self-healing technology, Wood stated, “I think the biggest challenge with this is setting expectations correctly.”

Further clarifying this phenomenon, Wood stated “We’re not talking about smashed screens miraculously coming back” but this healing technology was applicable for just cosmetics scratches.