Smart Phones That Shift Shape To Send Alerts to Users

What if, rather than get an audio or visual cue from your smart phone that your battery is low or that you've received a new message, the phone changes shape? In situations such as at movie theaters, you could still know what's going on with your phone without having to disturb everyone around you. This new shape shifting technology isn't so unrealistic; in fact, it's already underway.

Shwetak Patel of the University of Washington has come up with the SqueezeBlock, a squishable cell phone that uses minuscule motors in the casing to mimic the functionality of a spring, with the amount of squishability determined by the phone's "status." So, for example, a phone with a full battery might feel rigid, but gain squishiness as it drains. When your phone feels like a wet sponge, you know it's time to charge it up.

"You can imagine squeezing the phone to give you a little bit of information on its status – ring level, messages – without having to look at it," Patel told New Scientist.

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However, it seems that there's only be one type of informational message conveyed by squishiness, because if there's more than one reason why a handset might be squeezeable, we'd be checking our phones often to find out if it's because the volume is turned off, or our text message box full, or our battery low -- and all that checking kind of defeats the purpose of having a touch-indicator.

But there are other shape-shifting possibilities to help differentiate cues. For example, other researchers are working on how a cell phone's case could shift shape -- moving from a rectangle to a wedge to indicate an incoming call -- or even shifting weight from one end of the phone to another.

Considering 96% of Americans own cell phones, it's no wonder we're seeing advances in handset technology that constantly provides new ways of communicating with its owners. Just as cell phones have heightened the ability of deaf people to communicate quickly and easily with friends through texting and video calls, cell phones that change shape can create new levels of communication abilities among the blind or otherwise differently-abled.

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