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Intel Envisions Shape-Shifting Smartphones
An anonymous reader writes "It's not sci-fi, but rather advanced robotics research which is leading Intel to envision shape-shifting smartphones. 'Imagine what you would do with this material,' says Jason Campbell, a senior researcher at Intel's Pittsburgh Lab who's working in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University. 'If you want to carry the device, you'd make it as small as possible by making it pack itself as densely as possible. When you go to surf the Web, you're going to make it big.' The material being studied is transparent silicon-dioxide hemispheres, which can roll around each other under electrical control to create different shapes. The lab has built 6-inch long actuators, which it's working to reduce to 1-mm tube-sized prototypes. When will we see a shape-shifting phone? 'In terms of me being able to buy it, that's a difficult forecasting problem, because I have to guess about manufacturing costs,' Campbell said. 'I won't do that. But we hope the science will be proved out in three to five years.'"
Be sure to set your ringtone to that Transformers sound.
Hope it has keylocking features... I wouldn't like to have to explain a sudden "bulge" in my pants...
On the other hand "is that an email, or are you just happy to see me?"
... why can't they get it to change shape based on how you're using it?
'If Christ had tweeted the sermon on the mount, it might have lasted until nightfall.' - John Perry Barlow
'I won't do that. But we hope the science will be proved out in three to five years.'
I think that's an overly optimistic figure and I wish he would have commented on the date it would hit shelves as it's likely many decades into the future.
... and subsequently became very very rich (patents). A utilitarian might argue that this is the way it should be.
I'm probably captain obvious for saying this but as the complexity of our inventions reaches new highs (and requires more teams of people than just inventor-geniuses) it may increase the amount of time between inventing and actually marketing the product.
You may be able to argue that this has always been a long time with people like Charles Babbage or Nikola Tesla but I suspect it's going to get to the point where a lab researcher invents a way of doing something that does not hit everyday usage until well after his/her death. The ability to cheaply fabricate a device may be a bigger feat than development of the device. I seem to recall from some book (Three Cups of Tea?) that a man who worked on fabrication of computer chips & boards thought of a novel way to accomplish the task when he was in his shower and noticed how water ran off his skin. He somehow applied this to making computer boards more cheaply and effectively
My work here is dung.
Science proved out in 3-5 years. Then how long to get manufacturing to commercial dependability and costs? Once it is on the market, how long until it is more than a high priced novelty? And, the most important question, will battery technology be good enough to power a shape shifting phone for a day or two?
http://bgcommonsense.blogspot.com
http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/340/C7166/
http://www.mobilewhack.com/nokia-shape-shifter-concept-phone/
http://forum2.mobile-review.com/showthread.php?t=78837
This is surely a fantastic development. Being able to use your cell-phone as an inflatable life-raft.
How vunerable would these materials be against other forms of magnetism in the field. Would it collapse on EMP pulses ?
What can you think of ....
Now with a stimulating new vibrate function
They fitted George Orwell's coffin with rollers so he could turn over more easily years ago.
... they got this transforming technology from a large robot that was discovered in the arctic circle many years ago.
Why settle for a boring old phone when you can have a shapeshifter!?!? It's a phone, a music player, a car and a sexbot!
They gonna call it "Odophone"...
He already has a working model -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3OSTflMO80
Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
Will I be able to use this during the full moon? Or will I be filled with unbridled rage as I can't control the shape of the phone?
When I heard about this new material I was hopeful they would do something amazing with it. I was wrong. But I'm sure the personal massager industry will be pleased.
Sex toys.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
If this technology was so world changing, then why would they be talking about it at such an early stage? Because some engineer somewhere realizes that the technology will never work...
What the video clearly demonstrates to me is that Intel is now clearly run by marketing people rather than solid engineering as it once was. Meaning, why would you had one of your "research" people spending time talking about some "pie in the sky" stuff instead of actually doing something?
What you don't have your flying car and wrist video phone?
did anyone read... transparent silicon dioxide and think... transparent aluminum?
Nokia's Morph Concept was announced in February 2008, over a year ago.
The video on that site, which has illustrated use-case demos (unlike the Intel video) is also available through youtube for those of you who want direct access:
YouTube - Nokia Morph Concept.
Amazing stuff.
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... here's your new smart phone for this mission. Now, if you press this button it sends us a GPS signal so that we know exactly where you are. This button activates the camera, this button activates the sound recorder, and this button makes it shapeshift into a particularly nasty little knife. I'm sure you'll find excellent uses for them all.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
IOW, marbles cut in half. Pyrex cookware is (was?) made from SiO2.
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
Only takes calls from flunkies and paranoids.
There are also (more limited) shape-changing phones in development that don't require nanotech. The Nokia 888 (which I just discovered by spending too much time on YouTube after looking up the Morph) is merely a flexible LCD on a permissive backing with an elastic. Probably viable (though not economic) within a few years, unlike nanotech, which might be viable on an extra-large demo scale within 3-5 years (as according to the Intel developer in TFA).
As with my previous post, I'm including a youtube video demo. This one is live-action: YouTube - Nokia 888 Design.
Quick research shows that the 888 concept is 2+ years old, and NEC may have claimed it was stolen from them. I could not find an official Nokia-owned page talking about the 888. Maybe I can ask my friend who works there...
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
The SciFi Channel has already envisioned the same thing, except in their case it was an SUV that collapses small enough to carry in your purse.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
http://www.nokia.com/A4879144
http://www.modumobile.com/
It has a simmilar concept of a tiny phone being put into 'sleeves', so that when you ride a bike you can put it into a sleeve that goes over the handle bars, when you want it to play music you put it into a sleeve with speakers, etc...
Seems like a more realistic solution for now...
Imagine this as a beowolf cluster...!
A counterpoint is that Intel is a world leader in high tech manufacturing, and routinely builds end-to-end nanoscale high volume manufacturing processes AND factories, constantly. Like every other year. Innovations can be scaled pretty quickly in that environment.
Who gives a damn.
Am I the only one concerned about putting something in my ear with the potential to expand to the size of a laptop?
That has bad day written all over it.
Is this some bullshit attempt by Intel at a viral marketing campaign? There is ZERO science behind this and the other "shape-shifting" video they released. Glass spheres manipulated by electric fields? What? That makes no sense at all.
First the guy waves some rather mundane-looking actuators in front of the camera like they're somehow related to this idea. Then he wows the audience by holding up two different blocks of material and making the controversial statement that each has the same amount of material in them. HOLY SHIT!! WHAT!?!
Seriously, what is going on here? Why are they pushing this silly concept so hard?
Sorry, but this stuff angers me because so many people are eating it up like it's real science.
I am the inventor of the hilarious refrigerator alarm.
All we need now is a little A.I. and alot of luck.
You got the touch!
> It's not sci-fi, but rather advanced robotics research which is leading Intel
> to envision shape-shifting smartphones
It's embarassing enough to be in a business meeting and have your brother call to the forgotten custom ringtone of "I Like Big Butts".
Now you've gotta worry about the phone turning into a penis or vagina shape?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
the "Transputers":
http://www.cellphonedigest.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=528
Now THAT is shapeshifting...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
It's a Nokia E90 It goes from having a 240x320 display when being a phone to 800x352 with a keyboard when web surfing.
It uses this awesome technology called a "hinge".
DeceptiPhone, you must destroy Optimus Prime or else!
This will be great stuff, until the big three get ahold of it and disable the "internet shape profile" and the "flip phone shape profile", and the "portable to another technically identical network shape profile"
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
Sensing
Morph enables us to observe our local environment.
Morph can detect specific chemical compounds in the air.
Morph can tell if you're hungry, and make you pancakes in the morning.
Morph knows what kind of porn you like.
Nanoscale Ass
I for one welcome our new mini-Decepticon masters.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Teledildonics will always be [ahem] a growth industry...
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
From the robots that the intel guy had it looks more he was refering to the claytronics project ( http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~claytronics/index.html ) and if so it has a much broader use than just cellphones.
... when you can already brew coffee with your phone:
http://www.pomegranatephone.com/