Sloshing Cellphones Reveal Their Contents

holy_calamity writes "UK researchers have developed software that represents a handset's battery life by using a phone's speaker and vibrator to make a device feel and sound like it contains liquid. You give it a shake to find out how much is left. The same technique can be used to represent new messages by simulating balls rattling around inside a box. It runs on recent Nokias with accelerometers; video from the researchers explains it well." What a bizarrely fun idea.

A cellphone without an accelerometer...

[$RANDOMLUSER]

Is like a cow without an altimeter.

Apostrophe abuse in summary

[operagost]

Nokia's

An apostrophe does not mean, "Look out! Here comes an S!"

Terror Alert!

[CheeseburgerBrown]

I think this is a good idea -- harnessing already honed human perceptions and using them to relieve some of the bandwidth hogging our visual senses are subjected to. It could be quite intuitive, and save valuable screen real estate.

On the other hand, I guess it means we can't take our mobile phones on airplanes anymore, can we?

Homeland Security Agent: "How much liquid is in that phone?"

You: "None. It's virtual liquid."

Homeland Security Agent: "It sounds like at least a few ounces."

You: "Virtual liquids have neither volume nor weight."

Homeland Security Agent: "Do I look stupid to you?"

You: "Can I take the fifth on that?"

Homeland Security Agent: "That's Mistake Number Two, bub. Quoting from documents concerning the governance or liberties of American citizens is suspicious activity Level Blue. Ever heard of Ron Paul?"

You: "Uh, sure."

Homeland Security Agent: "You're under arrest."

Re:A cellphone without an accelerometer...

[gEvil (beta)]

How else are you gonna know when the cow's about to hit the ground, huh?

Re:Apostrophe abuse in summary

[Anonymous Coward]

pi'shpo'sh! it mo'st certainly doe's.

Re:Also

[Mr. Underbridge]

Also, getting sloshed while on your cell phone will better allow you to divulge your contents to anyone unlucky enough to be in your address book.

Yeah, that's fun. I have a buddy who tends to call his ex-girlfriend whenever he gets tanked. It got to the point where I had to take his cellphone from him before we hit the bars.

Re:that's just stupid

[yagu]

It's in reference to a joke I'd heard a while back...

In his early morning Iraq war briefing Bush's advisor said 2 Brazilian soldiers had died the day before. After a pause, Bush leaned over to Cheney and asked him, "How many zeros are in a brazillion?"

No political affiliation or skewering intended... just a funny joke.

Juice

[Radon360]

I guess this puts a new spin on the colloquialism of how much "juice" is left in a battery.

Re:Terror Alert!

[Anonymous Coward]

visual senses

You mean "eyes"? How many visual senses do you have?

Couple of musings...

[stoofa]

How much battery power is consumed in producing the sloshing noise to tell me how much battery power is left? And if you have unread messages while checking the battery power will you get balls sloshing around in the liquid? And would the smaller messages float?

I'm not buying my Mum one of these...

[Hanners1979]

I can just see her filling her mobile phone full of water when 'the liquid has run out'.

Re:A cellphone without an accelerometer...

[pimpimpim]

That answer is only valid if you are located higher than the cow's current position. If the cow was, for example, just catapulted from a fortress by french knights [youtube.com], and you were standing in the range of the catapult, you'd better look up.

However, if the cow would have an altimeter coupled to a wifi server, you could read out it's height independent of your own position so you wouldn't need to decide whether you should look up or down.

Re:Apostrophe abuse in summary

[wfWebber]

Nope. An apostrophe usually means, "Look out! Here come the grammar nazis"

Re:Apostrophe abuse in summary

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't you mean grammar nazi's?