PhoneCase Wheels — University of Tokyo, putting your phone on wheels could finally put an end to getting up off the couch to check your charging phone.
This remarkable smartphone case was developed as part of a study entitled ‘Phones on Wheels: Exploring Interaction for Smartphones with Kinetic Capabilities’, which involved University of Tokyo researchers Takefumi Hiraki, Koya Narumi, Koji Yatani and Yoshihiro Kawahara. While the results of their kinetic explorations won’t be fully unveiled until October, at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) 2016 in Tokyo, they have already shared a remarkable preview clip.
Phone case wheels that provides a variety of new ways for users to interact with their phones. Your phone can ride to you to bring you important notifications, while a particularly fun alarm function forces you to get up to hit the snooze button. But most importantly, the wheels themselves are ‘smart’ and can be used to gather detailed information – such as the exact size of a certain surface. Now that would certainly be a useful app when buying a new desk.
Just as practical, the morning alarm could soon be rolling away from you in order to force movement.
The wheels and the case have simply been 3D printed, and are powered by a circuit board equipped with micro-controllers, a USB-serial converter, motors, motor drivers, and rotary encoders. The motor actuation enables both linear and rotational movements, allowing the phone to push objects towards you or nudge you to attract your attention (useful when the sound has been turned off).
