Intel Envisions Shape-Shifting Smartphones 79
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.'"
ringtone (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:ringtone.. Transphoners? I'm still waiting for (Score:1)
the "Transputers":
http://www.cellphonedigest.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=528 [cellphonedigest.net]
Now THAT is shapeshifting...
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Re:ringtone (Score:4, Insightful)
I think it's better to risk someone not getting it (and then get a second run "WHOOSH" joke out of it) than to non-comically explain a joke immediately after telling it . . .
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Though it was handy for those people like myself who have never seen the Transformers movie, and never will.
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I, for one, welcome our new Dominion overlords.
Ooops! (Score:5, Funny)
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?"
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Either that or you can finally have an excuse for a non-convenient boner. It's my PHONE! Really!
If they're smart phones ... (Score:2)
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You didn't watch the vid .... NM. I almost forgot where I was f.or a moment.
In the video, Jason Campbell said they hope to have it changed based on application. I'd presume that would indicate the shape is dictated by what program you're using or, probably at first, by mode buttons of some sort.
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He's not a developer, he doesn't even work on cell phones. When he said "application" he's thinking of "cell phones" as an application for the material they're designing. I, on the other hand, am thinking of "shape-shifting robotic beer can" as an application.
Don't forget where you are...
The Delta Between Conceiving & Marketing (Score:4, Insightful)
'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
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That's arguably already true. For example, the earliest ancestors of the automobile were first created in 1771. But the first production car didn't roll off the line until 1901, and were not mass produced cheaply until 1908.
Intel == manufacturing (Score:1)
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But all Intel is doing is refining a known process. A new technology like this is more like the initial invention of printing integrated circuits using lithography where all the real world implications were unknown.
long time (Score:3, Interesting)
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It could well keep up. On the other hand, if the current trend is any indication, we'll be happy to keep it on for a single hour.
My old cell can run for a week - my new one complains after a day.
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Not if it's a shape-shifting iPhone ....
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...And, the most important question, will battery technology be good enough to power a shape shifting phone for a day or two?
No worries, just have it shape-shift into a hand crank
Forecast of issues using magnetic fields (Score:1)
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, listen carefully, 007... (Score:2)
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Vibrate (Score:1)
I've heard that... (Score:1)
It's not just a phone! (Score:2)
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!
Professor Phineas J Whoppee could consult (Score:1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3OSTflMO80 [youtube.com]
Tele-canthropy? (Score:1)
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?
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You know where this will eventually go... (Score:4, Interesting)
Sex toys.
Teledildonics (Score:3, Funny)
Teledildonics will always be [ahem] a growth industry...
Mal-2
What is wrong with Technology today... (Score:2)
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?
I'll use that in my flying car.... (Score:1)
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No, actually I thought...glass.
You mean like last year's Nokia Morph concept? (Score:3, Informative)
Nokia's Morph Concept [nokia.com] 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 [youtube.com].
Amazing stuff.
Nokia 888 is shape-shifting w/out nanotech (Score:2)
There are also (more limited) shape-changing phones in development that don't require nanotech. The Nokia 888 [nokia888.com] (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 vide
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Warning: Spoilers (Score:1)
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
transparent silicon-dioxide hemispheres (Score:2)
The Verizon Decepticon (Score:2)
Only takes calls from flunkies and paranoids.
Cellphone? (Score:2)
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.
Similar to Nokia Morph idea (Score:2)
Wait a second... (Score:1)
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.
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What this fuck is this? (Score:1)
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 mat
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Right, but I have to agree with the GP -- this is an R&D guy talking about creating a sponge that can contract on demand (yeah, that's simplifying a bit). Its neat, but its a LONG way from a cell phone that turns itself into a laptop. The stupid author is conveniently ignoring the difficult part, which is that a cell phone is not a sponge or just a blob of material. It has a processor, a display, etc.
The R&D guy was essentially bringing up the cell phone thing as an example a problem where shape
Yay! (Score:1)
All we need now is a little A.I. and alot of luck.
"Anal skin bleaching", Jesus Christ! :-( (Score:3, Funny)
> 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?
I've got a shape-shifting phone (Score:2)
It's a Nokia E90 [wikipedia.org] 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".
Autobots, transform and ROLL OUT (Score:1)
Good stuff (Score:2)
Oh, someone has to say it (Score:2)
I for one welcome our new mini-Decepticon masters.