If you’ve ever wanted a phone that could gently caress you with a single creepy finger, well, this is for you, I guess.
[jwplayer ufxzSg8Y]
It’s called MobiLimb and it’s literally a robotic finger that clips into the bottom of your smartphone via Micro USB to serve a number of purposes. It can gently stroke you while you use your device, tap you for notifications, serve as a stand or joystick, and heaps more. You can even slip a lifelike skin over the top of it to look like an actual gross finger. Christ.
It runs on an Arduino microcontroller and contains five servo motors for movement.
MobiLimb is actually a research project by French PhD student, Marc Teyssier, and his team, which aims to explore “the spirit of human augmentation,” he wrote on his website. “Our approach aims at overcoming mobile device limitations (static, passive, motionless) by using a robotic limb.”
You can see it in action for yourself below, which is, uh, unsettling to say the least.
Hmm, it’s a hard pass from me. As far as our connection with smartphones and other devices go, I reckon they can do without the creepy prosthetics for now. But hey, if you’re after a phone that could probably finger you, be my guest.
As far as I can tell, I don’t think this thing is for sale, but if you ask me, that’s probably for the best.
