The shapeshifting future of the mobile phone Fabian Hemmert

I am a PhD student and that means I have

a question how can we make digital

content grasp the ball because you see

on the one hand there is the digital

world and no question many things are

happening there right now and for us

humans it’s not quite a material that’s

already there it’s virtual on the other

hand we humans we live in a physical

world it’s rich it tastes good it feels

good it smells good so the question is

how do we get the stuff over from the

digital into the physical that’s my

question

if you look at the iPhone with its touch

and there we with its body the activity

you can see the tendency it’s getting

physical the question is what’s next now

I have three options that I would like

to show you the first one is mass as

humans we are sensitive to where an

object in our hand is heavy so could we

use that in mobile phones let me show

you the weight shifting mobile it is a

mobile phone shaped box that has an iron

weight inside which we can move around

and you can feel where it’s heavy we

shift the gravitational center of it for

example we can augment digital content

with physical mass so you move around

the content on the display but you can

also feel where it is just from the

weight of the device another thing it’s

good for is navigation it can guide you

around in a city it can tell you by its

weight okay move right walk ahead make a

left here and the good thing about that

is you don’t have to look at the device

all the time you have your eyes free to

see the city now mass is the first thing

the second thing that’s shape we’re also

sensitive to the shape of objects we

have enhance so if I download an e-book

and it has 20 pages well that could be

thin right but it has 500 pages I want

to feel that Harry Potter it’s thick

so let me show you the shape changing

mobile again it’s a mobile phone shaped

box and this one can change its shape we

can play with the shape itself for

example it can be thin in your pocket

which we of course want it to be but

then if you hold in your hand it can

lean towards you be thick

it’s like tapered to the downside to

change the grasp we can adjust to that

it’s also useful if you want to put it

down on your nightstand to watch a movie

or use this alarm clock it stands it’s

fairly simple

another thing is sometimes we watch

things on the mobile phone they are

bigger than the phone itself so in that

case like here this map it’s bigger than

the phone screen the shape of the phone

could tell you ok off the screen right

here there was more content you can’t

see it but it’s there and you can feel

that because it’s thicker at that edge

shape is the second thing the third

thing operates on a different level

as humans we are we are social we are

empathic and that’s great wouldn’t that

be a way to make mobile phones more

intuitive think of a hamster in the

pocket I can feel it’s doing all right I

don’t have to check it let me let me

show you the living more bat phone ok so

once again mobile phone shaped box but

this one it has a breath and a heartbeat

it feels very organic

and you can tell it’s relaxed right now

oh now mr. Cole a new course new

girlfriend maybe very exciting how do we

calm it down hmm

you give it a patch behind the ears and

and everything is all right again so so

that’s very intuitive and that’s what we

want so what we have seen at three ways

to make the digital grass cover for us

and I think making it physical is a good

way to do that what’s behind that is a

postulation namely that not humans

should get much more technical in the

future rather than that technology a bit

more human

[Applause]

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