A string of US patents filed by Motorola of Illinois outline how the cellphones of the future may operate.
Fancy a phone that has a full-sized screen, number pad for dialling, qwerty keyboard for emailing and console for gaming – yet is small enough to fit in your pocket? Motorola says it can be done if a screen covers the top of the phone body, while a number pad and qwerty keyboard slide out from underneath like miniature drawers. A third drawer holding a games console is optional (2005/0059438).
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Or do you want a quick way to turn your phone off, rather than having to scramble for a button? In the future, if your cellphone rings from the bottom of your pocket or purse while you are in a meeting, theatre or concert hall, just give it a slap and it will stop. Based on the principle that a loudspeaker can work in reverse as a microphone, Motorola says the slap will generate an electrical pulse that the phone interprets as a command to switch off (2005/0059435).
Motorola also suggests a self-repairing plastic casing for your phone or PDA, just in case you drop it. The polymer casing is moulded with two extra additives – a polymerisable goo that is sealed in small capsules, and a powdery component. The additives are evenly distributed and behave in a similar way to epoxy-resin adhesive. If the casing cracks, the shearing action breaks open some of the capsules to release the goo, which mixes with the powder and hardens (2005/0027078). So the crack repairs almost immediately.
But the company’s final idea may not be so popular. To stop cellphone owners using cheaper batteries instead of authorised spares, Motorola suggests adding a chip to all phone batteries. Only if the phone recognises a signal emitted by the chip will the battery and phone work together.
