Microsoft Research team designing Lumia covers with secondary displays

Microsoft Research has created a unique flip cover for Microsoft’s Lumia smartphones that adds a secondary display to deliver all kinds of useful functions. Those include displaying tickets, itineraries and other helpful information, and even acting as a touch keyboard.

“Instead of leaving most of research work in patents and papers, Microsoft Research’s MSR Next group is working with product teams in improving Microsoft products significantly using their research work,” reports WMPowerUser.

The special flip cover, designed to act like the YotaPhone’s secondary screen, is thought to be one of those projects, and as outlined in the image above, it comes with all kinds of different uses. Not only can it improve multitasking by displays things like your calendar while you compose emails, but also notifications, Cortana, tickets and itineraries, and a digital notebook.

Microsoft Research also suggests users could personalize the secondary display while it’s not in use — perhaps to show your favorite photos. But by far its most useful implementation is as a touch keyboard with Word Flow.

It is claimed Microsoft Research is in “deep talks” with the Lumia team to make this flip cover a reality, but we’ll have to wait and see whether it ever arrives. It certainly seems like a terrific idea.