New “Always-On” Display for the iPhone?

It seems that Apple has put out a patent on a new display technology. The patent shows a sort of two-layer backlight system that would allow for an “always-on” display for the iPhone while at the same time using very little battery power. This would allow for a sort of status notification without having to turn the iPhone on essentially giving you the ability to see if you have a missed call, text message, voicemail or a new email. This would be very similar to some of the lock screen status notification applications available on jailbroke iPhones but, without even having to turn your iPhone on! AppleInsider has a very nice article about the patent that include a few images. Below is a quote from the article and one of the patent images.

“…Apple proposes the implementation of a dual backlight system, where a secondary, low-power backlight system would be positioned behind the primary backlight system. The always-on light provided by the secondary backlight system could then be projected through one or more transparent or semitransparent regions of the primary backlight system to reach the display even when the primary backlight is turned off.”

For more info about the patented, check out the full article by AppleInsider HERE.