Is That A Phone In Your Pocket, Or Are You Just Happy To See Me?

Check this. Seriously, check it. I can see your cursor on the scroll bar, there. Stop for a second and freaking check this, alright? Alright, cool.

Here at Techi, as with most other tech blogs you can name, we frequently look at emerging technologies. Sometimes they rock, and this is most certainly one of those times.

Engineers at the University of Washington have developed a prototype smartphone dubbed the ‘SqueezeBlock‘ that… well, it kinda does exactly what it says on the tin: it’s a phone. That you can squeeze. Alright, so it’s more than that. Really, it’s a shapeshifting phone, that can use small motors to increase or decrease the amount of resistance in the casing of the phone, for varying degrees of ‘squish’.

Pressure plates in the casing detect force being applied to the phone (like your hand), and motors subsequently modulate the amount of resistance applied in response. The result is a phone that could be at one moment as rigid as concrete, and the next as soft as plasticine.

But what’s the point? Well, imagine your phone becoming malleable as your battery dies. Without it leaving your pocket, you’d be able to tell how much juice you’ve got left. Or what about email? A quick fiddle in your pocket for your hard, throbbing …phone, and it’s time to check your messages.

Really, though, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’m sure you guys can come up with a million more interesting uses for this technology than me. What applications would you want to see the SqueezeBlock used for?