Let’s just hope Siri isn’t using Apple Maps to navigate the outer regions of our solar system. Jokes aside, a recently published Apple patent application (US2013/0073095) describes NASA-esque mechanisms for protecting electronic devices from impact-related damage. Each is directed to either arresting the fall of a device, or alternatively reorienting it to minimize damage upon impact with the ground. Arresting embodiments include jet thrusters to counter gravitational acceleration, while other embodiments explore reorientation via mass-shifting, deploying airfoils, and…more jet thrusters. Siri could even dock her iShuttle…I mean iPhone…with the International Space Station en route to Mars, as the patent describes ways to jettison cables that may be pulling a device to its doom. As an aerospace engineer turned IP attorney, this blogger couldn’t resist chiming in.

Each solution comprises the same essential components – sensors for determining acceleration, location, and attitude of the device, a processor for computing the proper response given sensor input and predetermined algorithms, and an arresting/reorientation mechanism as described above. For more information, please visit our patent service page.

My take? Hold on to your $30 iPhone case. Given the trend toward slim, lightweight, and affordable mobile devices, most of these solutions will be too complex and require too much space to be implemented. I’m also not convinced by the physics of each – an airfoil that could create enough lift/drag to significantly change the attitude of an iPhone during a three foot free-fall? Not likely. Jet thrusters? Don’t get me started on hovering iPhones, but I could easily see bursts of compressed gas being used to reorient an iSatellite…I mean iPhone (ah I keep doing that) in mid air. Nonetheless, mixing compressed gas and shattering glass (read: shrapnel) in an oft-mistreated consumer device seems sketchy.

Shifting a mass to induce rotation? Probably the best option. Like many engineers, I often look to how nature solves problems, and cats have a well-deserved reputation for landing on their feet using similar principles. I’m conflicted though - the helicopter designer in me (trained to scrutinize the value of every pound added) is particularly allergic to the idea of adding ballast – but I suppose it makes sense in this context.

Live long and prosper, iGlass. Bazinga.

Source: http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/03/21/apple-looks-to-protect-dropped-iphones-by-shifting-their-orientation-mid-flight

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