If you've been keeping up with TV manufacturing trends, you may have noticed that electronics companies have this idea that they can't seem to shake - they want to make a television that's compact and easily transportable, and they want to do it without making the screen small.
Last year around the time of CES, there were rollable TVs introduced by Samsung and LG, but this year LG has taken a different approach, though it's one similar to what Samsung is trying to do with its new phones: make a television that can be folded up into a smaller size.
Spotted first by LetsGoDigital, the newly-patented TV seems to be separated into six different sections, with two frames on either side that serve as both stands and sound bars. The television panels fold up between the frames in a zigzag formation, similar to how you might fold a map.
The screen itself doesn't seem designed to unfold into a completely-flat television -- rather, the panels at either side are bent slightly, likely to allow for a little more support to what appears to be a ludicrously-thin TV screen.
LG, for its part, has not said anything officially about the foldable screen—in fact, despite the patent having been filed back in September, it wasn't until now that anyone outside of LG or the The Hague International Design System knew about the proposed design.
It's currently unclear who exactly this unusual idea is marketed at—it's entirely possible LG isn't sure itself, and that they designed the tech first and decided they'd worry about the market later. In fact, LG's earlier proposal, the rollable TV, was supposedly going to be released this year, but nobody has heard anything about that product since it was initially announced at CES.
There's undoubtedly people out there who are looking for a TV that won't take up as much space when it's not in use. Whether that's enough people to make the television worth selling remains to be seen.
Source: LetsGoDigital.org