For just about as long as smartphones have had screens that crack, folks have been fantasizing about how to save them from that fate. In 2011, Jeff Bezos patented a method to protect a phone from a fall with jets of blasted air. In 2013, Honda showed off a giant phone case that was a literal airbag (as a joke). Neither have made it to market. But a design by a German design student looks like the most practical implementation so far. Instead of using air, which would require pressurized gas or tiny superpowered jets, the "Active Damping" (AD) case designed by Philip Frenzel at Germany's Aalen University uses eight, curved, springy feet that are stored flat, under tension. When the phone detects it's in freefall, the feet launch out to absorb the shock and when all is said and done, they can even be folded back into the device. This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site. The improvements that Frenzel's design has over previous imagined solutions are pretty significant. It actually exists, for one. It's also cheaper and less bulky than air-based systems given that it needs neither a system of jets nor a reservoir of compressed air. That, plus its reusability, means it might actually be able to protect your phone from enough screen-shattering drops to justify its cost. There are a few glaring questions, however. How do you be sure this won't go off in your pocket when you flop on the couch, or any other time the phone might appear to sensors to be in free fall, but is actually completely secure? Plugging into a phone's built-in proximity sensor, which can tell whether or not its in a pocket for instance, might be a start, but that makes the project much more complicated than a case you can simply slap on, which is how the prototype currently works. In the meantime, Frenzel has won an award from The German Society for Mechatronics, and has registered for a patent on his design in the lead up to a potential Kickstarter campaign in the coming months. Unless there are some good solutions to the slightly concerning parts of the design, it's probably best to treat this as a novelty until it's proven to be otherwise, but the concept is certainly promising. Of course, we might not need these sorts of Rube Goldbergian solutions to screen protection if phones were just more repairable in general. But if the current design trends are any indication, that seemingly simple solution is probably the more outlandish one to hope for. Source: Aalen University via Gizmodo This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io<doc-sep>Just like passengers in a car, your cell phone is precious cargo. So why shouldn't it have an airbag similar to your vehicle? One ambitious engineering student, Philip Frenzel, is seeking to remedy this, as he has invented a "mobile airbag," recently spotted on Reddit. Frenzel's design begins with a thin protective case, outfitted with sensors that detect the free fall of a phone. Once airborne, metal springs deploy to cushion the fall. You can then push the attachments back into the case and reuse when necessary. Frenzel refers to his invention, which recently won Germany's Mechatronics Prize for 2018, as the "AD Case," short for "active damping." The Aalen University student plans to launch a Kickstarter for the project in July with hopes of funding his product. It should be worthy of note, however, that Amazon secured a patent for a similar design back in 2012. But for more on Frenzel's innovative "mobile airbag," follow here. In other tech news, Apple's next AirPod case will reportedly double as an iPhone charger.<doc-sep>That moment when you drop your phone and everything stops. You can hear your heart beat — the buzz of the world around you is silenced — all cognition stops — you see as if in slow motion the pirouette of your $700 piece of electronics toward the cement. How will it land? Will you get lucky this time? Or is this it? But if you had this case on it, you’d then see it spring horns and land with a jaunty bounce. This “active damping” case, a bit like an airbag for your phone, is the brainchild of Philip Frenzel, an engineer at Aalen University in Germany. His idea won the top award from the German Society for Mechatronics, which considered projects from students all over the country, and you can see him explain its genesis in a video here. Frenzel, like me, doesn’t like compromising his phone’s aesthetic with some ugly protective shell, but he likes even less the shattered countenance that inevitably results from this aesthetic decision. Why not something that only deploys when the phone is in danger, then? He got to work. The activation mechanism he arrived at early: sensors that detect when the phone is in free fall and activate the next step. But what was that step? In his tinkering, he initially thought of installing an actual airbag mechanism on the phone. But that, and a foam-based alternative, and a few others, simply didn’t prove practical. Finally inspiration struck. Instead of something soft, why not something springy? Perhaps… springs. As you see above, what he arrived at is a set of eight thin metal curls that normally lie flat inside the case. But when released, they pop out and curl up, protecting the edges of the phone from impact and softening the blow considerably compared with a full stop on the concrete. When you pick up your (hopefully undamaged) phone, you simply fold the springs back into their holsters, priming them for their next deployment. Of course, there’s the consideration that having these things deploy while the phone is still in your pocket would be at best embarrassing and at worst rather painful. One assumes there are considerations in place for that — tapping into the phone’s proximity sensor, for instance, to see if it’s in a pocket or bag. Frenzel has already applied for a patent, and even printed T-shirts with a catchy logo. So this thing is practically for sale. Next stop: Kickstarter.<doc-sep>
San Francisco, July 2: Cracked smartphone displays could soon become a thing of the past thanks to an innovative mobile case made by a German engineering student that acts like an airbag to protect dropped phones from smashing. The case, created by Philip Frenzel of Aalen University in Germany, senses when a phone is in a free fall and deploys small legs to protect it from damage, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. Apple to Introduce an Updated Maps Tool Soon; Will Be Available on All iOS Versions. The shock-absorbers in the four corners of the case do not make the case look odd as they lie flat inside the case in normal situations. They get released only when the case senses a free fall. The student-built the sensors that detect the free fall of the cell phone and developed a metal spring that unfolds during the fall and the power and energy cushions the fall, according to a report in the German publication Preview Online. The dampers can be folded in manually after a fall and are reusable. RED Hydrogen One: The First Holographic Smartphone to Feature 3D View Without the Glasses. For his invention, called "AD Case" where AD stands for "active damping", Frenzel won an award from the German Mechatronics Society. He expects to launch the device on Kickstarter this month along with another student at the university. Frenzel founded a start-up together with Peter Mayer, a graduate in economics from Aalen University, in order to launch his "AD Case" as a product. Frenzel's invention has already been registered for a patent, the report said. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 02, 2018 12:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).