This robotic finger attaches to your phone, caresses your hand | News and opinions

The MobiLimb not at all scary has joints that allow it to function as a real finger. Once attached to the bottom of your phone, it can tickle your wrist or touch to caress the back of your hand.

Desperate for the loving touch of another human? A group of researchers in France has developed another solution to relieve your loneliness: a realistic finger that attaches to your smartphone and strokes your hand.

The MobiLimb not at all scary has joints that allow it to function as a real finger. Its creators – Marc Teyssier, Gilles Bailly, Catherine Pelachaud and Eric Lecolinet – let's say that the device has several use cases.

For starters, once attached to the bottom of your phone, it can tickle your wrist or reach out to caress the back of your hand.

MobiLimb: Increase mobile devices with a robotic member [UIST 2018] Marc Teyssier on Vimeo.

"In the spirit of human augmentation, which aims to overcome the limitations of the human body using robotic devices, our approach aims to overcome the limitations of mobile devices (static, passive, immobile) by using a Robotic member, "Teyssier wrote on his website.

In addition to loving you, the MobiLimb can go up and down to get your attention when you receive a notification, serve as a crutch to hold your phone upright or serve as a handle if you want to carry your device as a shield. It can also "simulate a personality and emotions such as curiosity" to entertain you, allow your device to move autonomously by sneaking, and even hold a pen and draw a heart.

Researchers have designed several different textures for the MobiLimb, including a "classic robotic shell", another in fur and a third with a realistic skin shaped "finger" silicon.

"The use of human skin with the phone illustrates the change in the perception of the mobile device from an inanimate object to an entity" almost "human," Teyssier wrote.