Concept Gadgets Part 2

Every cool gadget started out as a concept. The smart phone that you use was once just a twinkle in a designer’s eye. Since technology is moving at such a fast pace, talented designers from all around the globe spend much of their time dreaming up fantastic new devices. Take a look at two such amazing concept designs which may, in future end up in your households.

LINC

Here is something to cheer about in the wake of global warming. LINC is a typical touch screen smart phone with all the connectivity and features you come to expect. It has got everything from a media player to a Wi-Fi. But here’s the catch. LINC is leased to the user as a service, not as a product. The handset is made up of valuable materials like aluminum, glass, and electronic components that the producer can harvest for re-use. After using the device for about a year, when the next generation of hardware comes along, the user is expected to ship back the device to its manufacturing facility were it is reassembled for upgradation. The best part is that LINC is designed for automated disassembly. A directed radiant heat beam targets its internal memory metal latch, releasing the assembly. In one step, LINC automatically disassembles into its few simple components, glass, aluminum and its circuit flex (transformers huh?). LINC changes the entire concept of production and consumption method today. If ever something like this is put into practice, then it could greatly reduce hazardous waste and improve environmental health by reducing e-waste.   

Synaptic’s Fuse

At first man made QWERTY handsets, then came the touchscreens and what’s next? Synaptics’ Fuse is an experimental phone that can interact with by squeezing, gripping, flexing and tilting the phone. The device melds multiple technologies such as multi-touch capacitive sensing, haptic feedback, 3-D graphics and proximity sensing. Fuse tackles the difficulty of single-handed usage and the need to constantly look at the screen, two big challenges that users face today with current generation touchscreen devices. With Fuse, touch sensors at the back of the phone means users can poke it to receive or initiate calls. Force and capacitive touch sensors on the sides of the phone also allow you to squeeze the phone to select icons from the phone’s menu. Incorporating the accelerometers into the user interface also means you can tilt the phone to scroll and grip the phone tight to stop. Synaptics plans to license parts of the handsets design to makers that are looking to take user interface on mobile phones to the next level. So it’ll take sometime before we can actually get a taste of this technology.