Just when you thought you’ve seen all the smartphone cases, this bizarre artificial skin case comes along. Developed by Marc Teyssier and his team at Telecom Paris, this is no ordinary case, as the artificial skin is designed to interpret a variety of gestures, like if you tickles the accessory, it types a laughing emoji onto the phone. Read more for a video, additional pictures and information.
His team developed “Skin-On” prototypes for smartphones, touchpads and even a wristband for smartwatches. This interface provides a natural physical affordances, or in other words, users are more likely to interact with the interface and discover new controls. The actual skin layer consists of one layer of stretchable copper wire in between two layers of silicone. By simply applying pressure on the skin, the electrical charge of the wiring changes.
More generally, our goal is to further explore various types of anthropomorphism towards human-like devices. The idea is perhaps a bit surprising, but skin is an interface we are highly familiar with so why not use it and its richness with the devices we use every day?” said Dr. Anne Roudaut, a professor in Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Bristol and co-author of the study.
