If you ’ve ever thought something along the crease of , “ Phone cases would be so much better if they were made out of human skin”—and let ’s confront it , who hasn’t — then you ’re in luck . PhD candidate Marc Teyssier and his fellow worker at Telecom Paris have create stilted tegument design to make smartphones and smartwatches feel a little more , well , human .
“ When we interact with others , we use skin as interface , ” Teyssier writes on hiswebsite . But , he order , objective of “ mediated communication”—like smartphones and computers — still have a cold interface that “ does n’t allow natural interaction and input . ”
Teyssier ’s skin - on interfaces are intended to figure out that problem . The prototype is reactive to a salmagundi of gesture , include abstract , tickling , and poke . The artificial tegument even responds to different emotion : Sudden , hard force per unit area is relate with anger , while aristocratic and sustained stroking is associated with providing comfort , New Scientistreports .
Why smartphones , though ? “ I wanted to nip my telephone , ” Teyssier toldNew Scientist .
The newfangled engineering is presently throttle to smartphones , smartwatches , and touchpads , but Teyssier and his team reckon a bounty of other pragmatic function [ PDF ] . Similar technology could be used to make headway prosthetics or to induct tactile communicating with robots , they propose .
Teyssier has antecedently made headline for one of his other labor — arobotic fingerthat could plug into a smartphone and lease it grovel across the elbow room ( à laThe Addams Family ) . Maybe in the future , Teyssier will consider combine the two . Then you could have the mobile , faux tegument - cover smartphone of your dreams ( or incubus ) .
[ h / tNew Scientist ]
