Weird Wireless Patents: Vibrating Tattoos, Phone Airbags and the Banana Phone

Posted on Mar 30th 2012

Part Human, Part Phone: Nokia's Haptic Tattoo

Society inches closer to a cyborg dystopia this week amid reports that phone manufacturer Nokia submitted an application for a patent of a haptic tattoo that transmits phone notifications to the user’s skin. The patent describes body art that would vibrate to notify users of incoming calls, text messages, e-mails and more.

Cushion the fall of your phone with a phone airbag

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos owns a patent for an airbag phone case with an air propulsion system designed to break the fall of a device in case of a drop. The case would use the phone’s gyroscope and camera to detect a sudden drop and deploy protective measures to minimize harm.

Finally, A Bananaphone for Grown-Ups

Kelly Hodgkins of intomobile.com reports a San Fransisco man named James Laird Rickard holds a 2006 patent for a banana-shaped mobile phone case. He describes it as “an elongated curving shape resembling a banana and partly encloses and holds a cellular phone.” Interestingly enough, Rickard was granted another patent in 2007 for a similar, shoe-shaped phone case.