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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