Smartphone Airbags : Now a reality

Few days back one of my friend dropped his costly smartphone in wake of saving himself from rolling down a flight of stairs.  And the consequence? Obviously, a phone with a cracked screen.

This momentary lapse is costing him hundreds now. Cracked screens could become a thing of past with the recent innovation of airbags for smartphones by Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos.

This technology makes use of motion sensors that detect the ‘free fall’ state of a smartphone and determines the exact moment when the airbags will deploy to protect the phone from getting damaged just before the fall.

Jeff Bezos’s idea of using airbag to protect smartphone could be well used in devices other than smartphone in later stages. It could also be used in his company’s own Kindle Reader.  He had already filed a patent application for his invention.  It reads: “Prior to impact between a surface and a device, a determination of a risk of damage to the device is made. If the risk of damage to the device exceeds a threshold, a protection system is activated to reduce or eliminate damage to the device.”

HOW THIS STUFF WORKS?

The phone featuring this safety feature will be equipped with a system of gyroscope, camera, accelerator and other sensors which would use data obtained by these components to assess the status-in-quo of the phone and take necessary action. It could also be bundled with air jets which would change the trajectory of the phone in mid-air.

POSSIBLE LIMITATION

Packing a phone with airbags and supporting sensor systems would add to the weight of the phone. Logistically it will be a tough nut to hide an airbag too.

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