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Yanko Design
- Apple patents ‘Foldable’ Watch with a Radical Design Featuring Dual-Screens and Cameras
Apple patents ‘Foldable’ Watch with a Radical Design Featuring Dual-Screens and Cameras

Conceptual Visualization
Forget the Apple Watch as you know it. New patents discovered at the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) show that Apple’s looking to incorporate foldable tech into its smartwatch series. If these patents are foreshadowing the future, we could be looking at a dual-screen Apple watch that basically feels like a tiny flip phone on your wrist. That isn’t all, the patent also looks to factor cameras into the wearable, giving you a tiny yet capable FaceTime device that lets you take video calls directly from your wrist.
The patent, filed by Apple Design Lead Vladimir Krneta, details a potential watch with ‘movable’ screens. While this doesn’t immediately imply a flip-phone-style clamshell smartwatch, Apple’s patent document showcases drawings of one, leading to speculation that maybe that’s the format Apple’s gravitating towards. The rest of the images in this article are visualizations based on the patent documents, created using AI. Although Apple has no immediate plans of launching a folding watch, the fact that they’ve filed the patent means that the R&D branch is working on a potential use-case of a foldable wearable for your wrist… with included cameras that turns the watch into something vastly more useful than a mere health wearable. But will it run Apple Intelligence???
Designer: Apple

Conceptual Visualization

Image Credits: Apple via United States Patent and Trademark Office
“A user may want the display to be extended when using certain applications, making phone/ video calls, playing games, browsing the web, etc,” the patent describes. “On the other hand, the user may want the display to be folded for convenience and portability, such as when the user is going about their day-to-day activities, outdoor activities, etc.”

Conceptual Visualization
The patent goes on to highlight other features, potentially turning the ‘health wearable’ into a practical extension of your phone. “For example, the wearable electronic device of the present disclosure can provide intuitive access and enhanced usability of features for convenient video calling, camera usage, web browsing, messaging, and interfacing social media.”
This description is supplemented by the proposed inclusion of multiple cameras – something Apple (and even other makers) have notably left out of their smartwatches. The patent hints at possibly two cameras (like in a phone), one for external capture as well as a wearer-facing camera for video calls.

Conceptual Visualization
It’s worth noting that this patent was filed in 2023 and discovered only recently by news outlets combing through the millions of patents at the USPTO. What Apple is doing with the Watch is not too different from what they did with the iPhone, i.e., replace a larger device. The iPhone was supposed to be a powerful laptop that fits in your hand, and now, Apple is scaling it down further, turning the Watch into an iPhone that fits on your wrist.
However, it’s best to take these patents with a massive grain of salt because Apple files hundreds of patents each year, hardly 1% of which actually translate to real products. If the foldable watch does become a reality, it wouldn’t be the first wrist-worn foldable device. A long time ago, Motorola teased a bendable phone that was flexible enough to fit around your wrist like a chunky bracelet. Sony’s even teased smartwatches with e-ink straps that change in color. Although both these are examples of products that never became mainstream, Apple tends to play the long game very well, waiting for the right time to launch the right, polished product. Until then, we apparently have a folding iPhone on the horizon!

Conceptual Visualization
The post Apple patents ‘Foldable’ Watch with a Radical Design Featuring Dual-Screens and Cameras first appeared on Yanko Design.
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Yanko Design
- Apple Researchers Built A Pixar-Style Robot Lamp That Moves And Emotes Like A Living Creature
Apple Researchers Built A Pixar-Style Robot Lamp That Moves And Emotes Like A Living Creature
Apple’s latest experiment in robotics feels like a love letter to Pixar’s Luxo Jr. The tiny, energetic desk lamp that hops onto the screen before every Pixar film has always been more than just a mascot—it’s a symbol of character-driven storytelling. Now, Apple’s researchers have taken that same playful, emotive energy and brought it into a real-world robotic lamp, designed not just to function, but to interact, express, and even entertain. Researchers at Apple presented a paper titled ‘ELEGNT’ (Expressive and Functional Movement Design for Non-Anthropomorphic Robot) along with a comprehensive video of the lamp in action.
There’s a poetic connection here. Steve Jobs, the man who shaped Apple’s design philosophy, was also the visionary who helped Pixar become an animation powerhouse. The DNA of both companies has always been about creating technology that feels approachable—whether through the friendly curves of an iPhone or the lifelike expressions of an animated toy. Apple’s robotic lamp embodies that same philosophy, proving that robots don’t need to be powerful to be meaningful. They just need to be relatable.
Designers: Apple Machine Learning Research Division
Developed by Apple’s Machine Learning Research division, this robotic lamp is more than an automated light source. It gestures, reacts, and even sulks when it’s left behind. A demonstration video shows it performing tasks in two modes: “Functional,” where it simply executes commands, and “Expressive,” where it adds personality to its movements. The difference is striking. Instead of cold efficiency, the expressive mode makes interactions feel natural—like the lamp is part of the room’s social fabric, not just an object within it.
In one scene, the lamp hears music and starts swaying, an irresistible display of curiosity. In another, it glances outside before describing the weather, as if pausing to check for itself. When it reminds a user to drink water, it nudges the glass forward—not as a command, but as a gentle encouragement. These small but thoughtful gestures tap into something deeply human: the way we naturally ascribe personality to objects that behave in familiar ways.
This is why anthropomorphism in robotics matters. People don’t just want machines that work—they want machines they can connect with. A robot that can convey joy, hesitation, or even mild disappointment is far more engaging than one that simply executes tasks. It’s a lesson we’ve seen play out in animated films for decades, and it’s one that robotics engineers are beginning to embrace. In a way it also helps shed the impression of robots being scary (Skynet, Terminator, Transformers, Ultron) by embracing more delicate, humane characteristics instead.
Apple’s research aligns with earlier reports from Mark Gurman suggesting the company is developing a home robot with an articulating arm and an iPad-like interface. Speculated to launch by 2026 or 2027, it could integrate with smart home systems and even act as a companion device. If Apple is serious about bringing robotics into consumer spaces, this expressive lamp could be a glimpse of what’s to come.
For now, this experiment serves as a reminder that technology doesn’t have to be rigid or clinical to be useful. The best machines aren’t just the ones that perform tasks efficiently—they’re the ones that make us feel something. And if a desk lamp can make you smile just by hanging its head in disappointment, Apple might be onto something special. You can read the entire research paper on Apple’s website here.
The post Apple Researchers Built A Pixar-Style Robot Lamp That Moves And Emotes Like A Living Creature first appeared on Yanko Design.
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