Dell patents a new design with two screens

Dell has filed a new patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office. The patent application shows a laptop comprising of two screens. It seem the company has followed Apple and Microsoft's path of producing a device with two connected screens. One display serving as the primary display and one as the secondary which also doubles as a virtual keyboard.

If you see the diagrams, the two screens are connected by a 360-hinge allowing for typical 2-in-1 modes: Laptop, tent, stand, and tablet. For the stand and tablet mode, the second screen will be turned off while the screens will remain illuminated when the device is in laptop mode. The built-in sensors will determine the orientation of the form factor and switch on/off the appropriate screen.

The patent also addresses an issue with digital rights management (DRM). Considering the design, one screen connects to the laptop's motherboard using an embedded DisplayPort (eDP) connector while the second uses a standard DisplayPort connector.

The device also determine if the content is locked with DRM and evaluate the type of applied DRM: extended mode, clone mode, or single mode. For extended mode, content can stretch across both screens, depending on the orientation.

The design also includes a crossbar switch which connects multiple inputs to multiple outputs. It also has a controller that determines the display mode, if the content includes DRM, and the orientation of the laptop.

"In some cases, a user may provide user input to temporarily keep a particular orientation, a particular routing, or both," the patent states. "While the orientation and/or routing is temporarily locked, the controller may ignore the data provided by the operating system, device driver, and sensors. When the user provides additional user input to remove the lock, the controller may resume determining an orientation and selecting a routing of the crossbar switch based on the data provided by the operating system, device driver, and sensors."

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Dell also recently announced a new family of Inspiron all-in-ones, an updated XPS 15, an Inspiron 15 7000 2-in-1 Special Edition, six S Series displays, and the availability of and new color for the XPS 15 2-in- 1. The new assortment of systems powered by Windows 10 and are packed with Intel's latest 8th Gen Core processors.