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Shape-Shifting Mobile Devices Unveiled
An anonymous reader writes in with news about shape-shifting mobile devices unveiled by researchers from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science. "Prototype mobile devices that can change shape on-demand will be unveiled today and could lay down the foundation for creating high shape resolution devices of the future. The research paper (Pdf), to be presented at one of the world's most important conferences on human-computer interfaces, will introduce the term 'shape resolution' and its ten features, to describe the resolution of an interactive device: in addition to display and touch resolution. The research, led by Dr Anne Roudaut and Professor Sriram Subramanian, from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science, have used 'shape resolution' to compare the resolution of six prototypes the team have built using the latest technologies in shape changing material, such as shape memory alloy and electro active polymer."
The Dominion wants to be paid royalties
Never put a shape shifting mobe in your back pocket, lest it bite (byte?) you in the ass.
Actually describing what the new technology does? That doesn't seem important... What we need in this summary is technology buzzwords.
Amazing! A phone that shifts shape from a small lump, to a flat bar! Wow! If only we had had these kinds of phones in the late 1990s and early 2000s, it would have revolutionized the cell phone industry.
What will they think of next, phones without physical buttons???
moox. for a new generation.
meh... they're probably robots in disguise.
Whenever a player quits EVE to go play WoW, the Average IQ of both games increase.
The article is a survey of a number of different approaches to reconfigurable materials as applied to mobile devices, and proposes some criteria for how to quantify the "resolution" of the reconfigurability along a number of axes, like morphology and curvature and area and whatnot. I have not read it in enough depth to determine how useful it is as an analytical tool, but it's essentially proposing an analytical tool to use to understand this area and guide further developments.
Incidentally, if you're interested in such materials, you may also be interested in self-reconfiguring modular robots.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Must be on /.
What the fuck are you talking about? A clam phone? T1000 liquid metal alloy?
the paper is on a .fr and doesn't load.
it must be some new french jackets.
seriously though. it seems they've come up with a wire that can contract if electricity is put through to it and stay that way? there's a video on the first link. so eh, it's about jackets. I guess it might be cool and all, but I keep wondering that why the demos are so lame and if it had some new property as an actuator, why the fuck waste it on cardboard and not use it for industrial purposes?
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
to further clarify, it's not about flexible displays or new flexible conductors or stuff that those "morphees" actually need to get invented to be shape shifting mobile devices like a phone that you could roll on your wrist(or well, in that case it would be the element that causes it to roll up, but somehow I never saw that as the big hurdle).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I like mongeese.
I didn't read the article.
did you not understand? ;-)
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
I spoke with your mother on her clam phone. I think she's been cheating on me, something sounded fishy.
From TFA: ..and then break, enabling you to enjoy the pleasure of buying another one!
"The device could also transform into a sphere to serve as a stress ball,"
All they're doing is evaluating memory alloys and electroactive polymers for mobile scenarios, and just barely at that. This is very early stage research, none of what is shown has any nearby practical reliable uses until it's much further developed.
Given your handle, I'd like to say "clear as gl4ss" , but I'm not sure I have much more of a clue after reading your posts than I did after reading the summary ;).
Oh no... it's the future.
For a small fee I will take your flat bar phone and turn it into a small lump. Reverse engineering is easy.
It's also 3D printed, from asteroid material, in private space capsules.
Bah, who cares about shape shifting mobile devices. What about flying mobile devices? I prototyped that yesterday when I knocked my tablet off the table. Flying mobile devices must be just around the corner!
Talkin' a smartphone dildo, you can enable the velociometer to the vibrate feature. Finally, you can stick that smartphone where the sun don't shine!
It's another UI prototype about paper-thin hardware; in this case it bends when you touch it. It's not a finished product, though. "Prototypes" in this case means "we wired up a piece of cardboard and a projector to simulate what we think this one day might be like, maybe, just so we could explore interface design questions."
For the past several years HCI research has been pursuing various paper-thin interactions (another example, from my alma mater.) As a general rule they're very novel and creative ideas, but as far as I can tell there isn't a soul on the planet who would actually want to try and use such a horrible pseudo-skeumorphic mess. Paper's just too thin and delicate to use as a UI device.
But don't be too hard on the summary: they managed to avoid scarring your eyes forever with the prototypes' actual name, which is so horrible you'd think it was invented to market toys to six-year-olds.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
I am still waiting for my flying car.
"The research, led by Dr Anne Roudaut and Professor Sriram Subramanian, from the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science"
Now, we have a French name and an Indian name. It's a continuation of a trend I've been seeing for the last 10 years, with US-based researches being lead by (arguably) non-US citizens (as in: people not born in the US or born of immigrants).
So I have to ask: where are all the US-based great minds? Working for these researchers? Just wondering.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
What problem does this fix? Why do we need morphing phones?
It's always been an engineering rule of thumb: reducing the number of moving parts generally increases reliability and decreases maintenance. You may or may not be able to get as good a performance out of the end result, but at least there's less potential for random, fatigue-based breakage...
The reverse? *sigh* Landfills cringe at the thought...
"I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
Boo this man
http://soylentnews.org/~tibman
I've got a shape shifting mobile device. It's call a flip phone.
I wonder what would happen if you could change the shape of the cone to change the tone (more bass/movie mode = deeper cone, switching the classical/jazz = shallower cone)?
I just love it when companies add points-of-fai... sorry, I mean 'mechanical features' to my electronic devices.
Hold on, My but plug is ringing.
is actually a mobile phone?
No, the youtube video is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVE-7x9Usvw