An industry conference showing the prototypes of their deformed mobile phones.

A few days ago, researchers from the University of Bristol at an industry conference showed their prototype mobile phone prototypes, which can be automatically adjusted to the needs of the environment and user actions, laying the groundwork for future "high-resolution" devices.

The study's leader, Ann Roudaut, explains what "shape Resolution" is: "Shape Resolution" is a parameter created by reference to "screen resolution" to measure the "deformation capability" of a device. Now people in the purchase of digital devices will be concerned about screen resolution, and future shape resolution will be one of the important parameters to be concerned.

The researchers also set 10 main features for "shape resolution": Size (area), granularity (granularity), curvature (curvature), bending amplitude (amplitude), porosity (porosity), Stretching (strectchability), closed angle (Closure), over 0 points (zero-crossing), intensity (strenth) and reaction speed (Speed). As shown in the following illustration:

The research team used deformable materials such as memory alloys and electroplating active polymers and tactile sensors to create several prototype devices, and the following is one of their ideas, the morphees mobile phone called "the". Morphees can automatically change the shape according to the usage scene and the user's requirement, such as automatically closing when the password is needed, and bending automatically when the user opens the game into a convenient grip shape. Roudaut tells us that Morphees does not fully possess 10 features of shape resolution, such as extensibility and porosity, and that current prototyping equipment also needs to be improved in recognition accuracy to reduce false distortion.

The researchers believe that deformable devices like Morphees will be the next generation of mobile devices. A mobile phone with a "high shape resolution" will change the mode of human-computer interaction with the 10 features mentioned above, deformable devices can provide a very interesting and practical way to interact, such as automatically protruding the device's screen to form a keyboard when input is needed, or automatically becoming a ball when the user needs to hold the phone.

While we've seen the distortion devices added to the iphone as accessories from the video, researchers are not inclined to make it an accessory to existing handsets. "It would be a bit odd to add deformable accessories to existing handsets because it relies heavily on the other parts of the phone to be deformable," he said. I think the deformable equipment will appear in the form of a stand-alone device. Believe that the future manufacturers will produce a deformable screen, directly embedded in other accessories. "Roudaut said.

The cost of deformable equipment and the difficulty of making them are issues that must be considered if they are to be used on a large scale in the future. Roudaut tells us that memory alloys are not a very expensive material, and that the price of raw materials will fall even further if deformable equipment is made into mass production. In fact, at this stage, prices are only a minor factor to be considered by the researchers. The touch screen, which is now ubiquitous and cheap, is expensive when it first appeared in the lab 15 years ago.

For the future of deformable equipment, Roudaut is very confident: "The most important thing for us is to consider what is most suitable for consumers, we believe that deformable equipment is." If we can find the right company to cooperate, we believe that we can create more successful equipment than touch-screen equipment. ”