RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – IBM, annually the global leaders in patents, could be turning your smartwatch into a tablet computer.

So smartwatches that already can monitor your health might someday help you log in to Facebook or catch up on your work as you take a stroll or ride in an Uber?

“This is by far the most outlandish smartwatch design ever and it’s not from Apple,” declares The Asian Age.

According to tech website LetsGoDigital, Big Blue has earned intellectual property protection for a “variable displace size for an electronic display device.”

The patent was published in June and came to light on Monday.

LetsGoDigital published several different images that show how Big Blue’s could work.

The smartwatch includes as many as eight panels that unfold into a screen that runs 12 inches by 8 inches from a starting point of 3 inches by 2 inches, according to UK tech news site The Inquirer.

“[T]hat’s a reasonably big tablet to hold in two hands let alone have strapped to your wrist,” the Inquirer notes.

View more images at LetsGoDigital.