Vibrating Rubber Cellphones
Vibrating rubber cellphones could be the next big thing in mobile communications. They allow people to press the phone to transmit vibrations along with their 16 words. According to a research team at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the idea will make 17 more fun.
Many mobile phones can already vibrate instead of ringing 18 you do not want people to know you are getting a call. But these 19 are too simple for subtle (敏感的) communication, 20 Angela Chang of the lab"s Tangible Media Group. "They"re either on or off," she says.
But when you hold Chang"s rubber cellphone, your fingers and thumb wrap around five 21 speakers. They vibrate 22 your skin around 250 times per second. Beneath these speakers sit pressure sensors (传感器), so you can transmit vibration as well as 23 it. When you squeeze with a finger, a vibration signal is transmitted 24 your caller"s corresponding finger, its speed 25 on how hard you squeeze.
Chang says that within a few minutes of being given the phones, students were using the vibration feature to 26 emphasis to what they were saying.
Over time, people even began to transmit their own kind of ad hoe (特别的) "Morse code", which they would repeat back to show they were 27 what the other person was saying. Chang thinks "vibralanguages" could function for the same 28 as texting: sometimes people want to communicate 29 without everyone nearby knowing what they"re saying. "And 30 actually being able to shake someone"s hand when you close a business deal," she says.