March 10, 1876 -
Alexander Graham Bell's first
experimental telephone works.
June 17, 1946 - In
Saint Louis,
Missouri,
AT&T and
Southwestern Bell introduced the first
American commercial mobile radio-telephone
service
Early 1991 - The first
digital mobile phones are
developed and sold for
commercial use.
April 4, 2002 - The
epitome of perfection
*sarcastic snort*,
MIT Media produce the first working
prototype of the
Vibraphone.
Yes, we have come a long way in phone technology. From the early days of Graham Bell's archaic phones, to the modern sleek phone, to the mobile phone - and now we have Vibrating Mobile Phones. Now I know mobile phones can already vibrate, but as Angela Chang of MIT Media explains, "They're either on or off." In other words, when there is a call or a message it vibrates, otherwise it is still. New Vibraphones allow you to send a vibration to the other Vibraphone you are connected to. How does this work? Chang explains:
"When you grip my prototype latex cellphone, your fingers and thumb wrap around five tiny speakers which vibrate against your skin around 250 times per second. Beneath these speakers sit pressure sensors, so you can transmit vibration as well as receiving it."
The MIT Media group did a user response survey from a group of students attending the Cambridge College, Massachusetts. The users found ways to use the vibrations, such as interrupting the other speaker, showing they were angry, doing a "virtual" handshake, and some students even developed a kind of morse code. "It was pretty easy to communicate, though we didn't specifically pre-arrange codes," says David Milovich, one of the students who tried out the device.
This all seems fine to me, but is there really a point to all this? Sure, we could use Vibraphones for all of the above mentioned reasons, but isn't this just an over-rated expensive novelty? "And imagine actually being able to shake someone's hand when you close a business deal," says Chang. That's all very good and well, but at a cost of over US$3000 (current estimate manufacturing cost), is this really a feasible choice for your average person? I think not. To me, the Vibraphone seems like a waste of research. A video phone would do worlds greater in displaying emotions than simple Vibraphones. I say, a waste of research and an over-expensive novelty. What is the world coming to?