Conduit mobile phone concept is about 40 years early
As much as we adore this concept, we're not even remotely hopeful something like this will become a reality within the next score or so. That said, we'd love to be proven wrong, as the Conduit is quite possibly the most fantastic phone design to ever be conceived. With a hint of steampunk, a dash of Star Trek and a splash of ergonomic appreciation, this here mobile can be collapsed into a pocket-friendly form or expanded into a bona fide video phone. Hit up the read link for a few more looks, and feel free to give these designers a chunk of capital to make our dreams come true.
[Via kanYeWestBlog]
[Via kanYeWestBlog]



















looks intense..
i wouldnt say 40 years.../
20 max.. considering those huge horrible cellphones came out less then 20 years ago, and now we have these nice ass smart phones, i dont think 20 years is hard to beleive for that concept.
those cellphones were HUGE, did nothing but phone calls, and the battery lasted 30 mins.
now we have phones that do everything, (exept work as a universal remote, im still waiting for that, o and garage door opener, and be used to unlock the doors, and turn on my car.) i mean we have the technologie, it would only have to be made mm's bigger, but it would be off the hook.
Moore's Law doesn't disappoint.
Waste of time. The world ends in 2012!
Thanks Mayans! :D
@ nimer_55
Some smartphones do work as a remote
You can control iTunes, Keynote, VLC, and your desktop.
You can guess which phone i'm referring to.
@nimer and lu1de
WinMo and Palm smartphones with IR ports have universal remote apps that work just great for your TVs and other equipment. Or other people's TVs >:-)
@ lu1de
would i be wrong if i mentioned my two year old Sony Ericsson K800i?? it actually does more than just utilise VLC the middle button acts as a mouse pointer.
@blizzerpwnd -- Actually, there are no indications that the Mayans thought the world would end in 2012. It's just that their calendar ends in 2012. It's a lot more probable that they didn't think their calendaring system would be in use for that long.
So no... you can scream your doomsday prophecies from the roof of your house (or keyboard), but that doesn't make it any more true.
These should be along in 5 years. In 40 I would hope that communication would be done with implants and we could forgo stuff in our pockets.
@ Dado
you do have a communication implant right now, it's called "mouth". What more could you want, wow....
@ Dado
you do have a communication implant right now, it's called a "mouth". What more could you want, wow....
@Kevlar
And you can scream your protests, doesn't make the prophecies less true.
Actually it's not that intense.
i think this phone would not offer the convenience improvement people think. i believe an HTC Pro2 with its adjustable screen tilt or even many of the existing phone form factors are better than this one. My touchscreen phone fits in my pocket just fine and i done see how carrying that pen like form factor would offer me much improvement.
I could see the concept better used for laptops or MIDs (which could double as phones). They'd need to make it foldable with a hingeor something with the screen on one side and the laptop on the other that can then be separated out like the above to reveal the top touchscreen and the lower half of course a touchscreen that may be used as a keyboard.
I think it could work as a phone and headset that unfolded. If they could simply make it wearable and if you want to do vid calls you can take it off your ear and do the whole thing. Im not saying thats what this was intended for but if they worked with the form factor it could work. Maybe make it foldable and workable to be both handset and wearable.
Is Apple going to be manufacturing this? If not when can we expect them to steal it?
It appears to be running OS X, just look at the bar on the top
@Oli D: Ummm...no. It's a freaking mock-up UI. Not supposed to mean anything other than a proof of concept. (and seriously, that "top bar" thing? Many Unix-based and Unix-like OSes have that in their UI/environment. Not everything runs on Windows or Mac, sucka!)
Hatemonger all you like, but this is the wrong tree to bark up.
The only person who'd want to manufacture this is Ming the Merciless - looks like it's come straight off the set of Flash Gordon, lol.
The only problem I could see with it (considering Sony's bendy OLEDs, touchscreens, etc.) is that the handles aren't exactly chipset friendly.
You couldn't fit much of a board in there, the shape is just awkward...
This is where the 40 yrs comes in!
Most likely in the future they silicon is going to be super thin to the point of being flexible to a certain extent without damaging the circuit, or the technology used on that phone is far superior and flexible than the silicon we use today.
Kanye West's site... really guys?
But on his site, it said via another blog. We could keep going further and further down, I guess this is just the first place they discovered it.
Great ideas but..
Which pocket is that shovel shape supposed to slip into?
good news! it's a suppository.
No thanks, I'll keep my iPhone if it's all the same to you.
The iphone so 2008 :P
I personally prefer the phone in the background next to the coffee. The one with the croissant shape.
Yeah that one looks tasty!
You sure? The one in the shape of a cup of coffee looks quite good to me as well.
Crysis, yes
Blend, no (but it will stir).
Yeah, I went to 2049 in the TimeMachine (Shipped with Mac OS Leopard) and got the designs to the present, and then they got stolen....
You guys know that when Lincoln said "four score and seven years ago," he meant "(four score and seven) years ago," and not "(four score) and (seven years) ago," and that a score is not a length of time, right?
Juuust being my regular old pedantic dick of a self :-)
Four score is a length of time; it's 80 years.
No no. A score is an amount, not a length of time. Four score years is 80 years; four score is 80. Look it up.
Aeoon Flux anyone?
how would this work in the pocket?
Disregarding the exact shape of the handles, I believe this type of phone/MID could be much closer to reality than 40 years out. Just check out the Readius which already has foldable screen and is already available today.
Also once in 40 years: KanYe West Blog comes up with anything anyone cares about. Too bad it'll never happen.
Oh hey, look, its the future.
lolling hard... it's running OS-X 10.4 - they need to update to leopard... and I doubt apple would be happy having 'SKY's logo in the top bar.
I'm sticking to 10.4 on my G4, I should think for a cell phone you'd either do the same or wait for 10.6..
I think after 40 years this will look like funny toy !
The day when bendy OLED screens become a reality is when phone will be changed forever. We won't have to have the tradeoff of big screen = big phone!
Well... remember, how LG crammed a full 3G circuitry into a watch? Flexible touchscreen... well, that might be a problem. But there is that pen which could easily be used instead. OK, multitouch wouldn't be a feature, but smartphones don't have to be iPhones. So basically:
* Folding OLED screen (check)
*+small 3G circuitry (check)
*+a pen shaped laser mouse (check)
I wouldn't say 20 or 40 years. If this concept is to be realized, it will be in the next 5 years or so.
Easily less than 5 years.
Also remember that people are working on OLED touchscreens.
So that flexible touchscreen might not be far away...
Here's an example with regular leds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kzIHMpOt20
PopSci made a similar mockup a couple of years ago, it doesn't seem so far fetched. Spring and roll system with the screen on one side, processor on the other.. 5-7 years.
Future Torah..
Looks ugly for my European taste, even though they tried so hard with the coffee and croissant on the table :)
this is the future? A gold piece of crap you roll up in your pocket? If this is the future, kill me now!!!
Star Trek.... pish, you wanna be.
Try "Earth: Final Conflict."
http://macbigot.com/media/Global300x200.jpg
There was at least one manufacturer working on this tech at least 2 years ago. At the very least you should be able to think of e-Ink as being similar and that has been out for a few years now.
http://www.universaldisplay.com/
My thoughts exactly. thanks for the excellent links...
40 years??? No way... we'll probably have something similar, with a very small body with a flexible rollout OLED screen within
...within 10 years or so
[damn, don't use any "less than" or "greater than" signs.. it'll cut off your post.]
the screen is already a fact. the unit could just be a remote screen and a light pen or something. there must be a base unit
They missed out the next couple of frames where a gust of wind comes along and the phone is carried away by it's handy sail.
this is not as original as it looks. There is a flexi screen communicator from Gene Roddenberry's " Earth Final Conflict" where the design really does rock! Worth checking out.
now thats called "ancient"
Suddenly Boone's phone is a boon?
I'm waiting for OLED big screens that roll-up. Stretchy ones that can replace the vinyl they use as advertisements on automobiles, so I call tell off the jerks in traffic, or simply change the appearance of my car (which is going to make chasing the criminal element a lot harder (I am not, nor do I intend to be, among those.))
As others have stated the bend will make pocketing this less than comfortable.
I'm also waiting for the cost of OLED technology to come down into line with the reduced circuit fabrication process. Why are they more expensive than LCDs when they can be printed with ink jet technology?
"I'm waiting for OLED big screens that roll-up. Stretchy ones that can replace the vinyl they use as advertisements on automobiles, so I call tell off the jerks in traffic, or simply change the appearance of my car (which is going to make chasing the criminal element a lot harder (I am not, nor do I intend to be, among those.))"
I'm pretty sure you're supposed to get a licence for that. I might be wrong though.
I liked this better when it was called a "Global" on Earth: Final Conflict back in the '90s.
No, they should make it 8 1/2 x 11 and have it replace paper!
great idea! a mobile phone you have to set on a desk!
we already have this technology, it just hasn't been implemented correctly...
Nice. Glad to see my school-mates designs being show cased. There were a bunch of others on display too. all very cool gadgets!!!
Looking at the tiny stand, how heavy do you think it has to be to act as a counterweight for the screen? I think they would be better off with a mini-projector.
Apparently it is immune to gravity as well, given that it stands up like that without falling over backwards. I'm not sure I'm ready for an anti-gravity phone.
edgar friendly
In Earth: Final Conflict, these were Sprint phones....
Oh No!!!
Might find these links interesting. They still need to work on screen refresh rate and getting it in color.
Readius Cell Phone 5-Inch Fold Out Display
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1410
3GSM: ePaper gets real with Polymer Vision’s READIUS Exclusive Hands-on Photos!
http://www.slashgear.com/3gsm-epaper-gets-real-with-polymer-visions-readius-123866/
Hm I think I drew something like this when I was 5.
Absolutely fugly, but interesting idea. Let's hope that, as soon as it is released (if ever), other companies will start making more beautiful copies of it.
weird
This is most likely a figment of someone's imagination that they intend to patent, so when an actual inventor creates something similar (and that actually exists) they will sue them.
Everyone already forget about Kurzweil's singularity? Last I checked thats only 2045... and thats when we cross over to a Kardashev Type I civilization. This phone hardly looks that advanced. I'd say look for it in whatever remains of the big box store wars so around 2020.
40 years... no
20 years.. no
We have all of the technology to make this phone possible within thenext 5.
The screen can be made of OLED... fucking roll up right inside one of those pieces