Sunday, March 2, 2008
Nokia Tinkers With Morphing Phone Concept
Imagine what you'd get if you crossed Gumby with a smartphone, and you've got some idea of what a new, nanotech handset from Nokia could be like.
The new nanotech mobile called Morph, which was jointly developed by the Nokia Research Center and the University of Cambridge in England, is a bendable, flexible and stretchable device that can be folded into pocket size and used as a handset, or unfolded and opened up to display more detailed information. Users could fold or unfold the device to suit their immediate purpose, whether it's to talk on the phone or use input devices such as keyboards or touch pads. Even the electronics integrated into the device, from interconnects to sensors, would be flexible. (Nanotech's use in mobiles is fast on the rise and a study estimates that the nanotech components for mobiles market could be a 15 billion $ market by 2012)
The Morph was unveiled recently as part of the "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition that runs through May 12 at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
How's this morphing structure produced? Nokia's technology uses Fibril proteins (but biodegradable materials could also be used in future) woven into a 3-D mesh that reinforces thin elastic structures. The resulting elasticity enables the devices to change shapes and configure themselves to adapt to the task at hand.
Morphing phones are not exactly new. Design firm Alloy exhibited its Polygon morphing phone as early as June 2006. But morphing mobiles have seen significant acceleration in the past few months.
Nokia's Morph is also seen as a part of a broader ongoing trend toward transformable devices. Other product trends in a similar direction are Motorola's Rokr E8 (a nice review here), Polymer Vision's Readius, Modu Phones from an Israeli company, and BenQ S670C.
Read more on these morphing mobiles from the following news reports: Tech News World, Rediff, PocketLink
The new nanotech mobile called Morph, which was jointly developed by the Nokia Research Center and the University of Cambridge in England, is a bendable, flexible and stretchable device that can be folded into pocket size and used as a handset, or unfolded and opened up to display more detailed information. Users could fold or unfold the device to suit their immediate purpose, whether it's to talk on the phone or use input devices such as keyboards or touch pads. Even the electronics integrated into the device, from interconnects to sensors, would be flexible. (Nanotech's use in mobiles is fast on the rise and a study estimates that the nanotech components for mobiles market could be a 15 billion $ market by 2012)
The Morph was unveiled recently as part of the "Design and the Elastic Mind" exhibition that runs through May 12 at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
How's this morphing structure produced? Nokia's technology uses Fibril proteins (but biodegradable materials could also be used in future) woven into a 3-D mesh that reinforces thin elastic structures. The resulting elasticity enables the devices to change shapes and configure themselves to adapt to the task at hand.
Morphing phones are not exactly new. Design firm Alloy exhibited its Polygon morphing phone as early as June 2006. But morphing mobiles have seen significant acceleration in the past few months.
Nokia's Morph is also seen as a part of a broader ongoing trend toward transformable devices. Other product trends in a similar direction are Motorola's Rokr E8 (a nice review here), Polymer Vision's Readius, Modu Phones from an Israeli company, and BenQ S670C.
Read more on these morphing mobiles from the following news reports: Tech News World, Rediff, PocketLink
Labels: Electronics-Communications-Engineering, Material-Sciences
PermaLink - Nokia Tinkers With Morphing Phone Concept posted by Ecacofonix : 8:01 PM
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