At a trade show, you stretch your wristwatch cell phone to check the moment and next hand out business-card phones with your logo. that vision of the not-too-distant future is one of the possibilities of the Morph joint venture by Nokia and the United Kingdom’s University of Cambridge.

That vision went on display at New York’s Museum of contemporary Art (MoMA) on Sunday, as part of the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit. “Morph,” Nokia said, “is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to convert their mobile device into radically different shapes.”

Transparent Electronics

Dr. Bob Iannucci, Nokia chief technology officer, said the Nokia Research Center is looking to “reinvent the scheme and operate of mobile devices” through the use of nanotechnology and the Morph “concept phones” show some of the possibilities — including flexible materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces.

The partnership amidst Nokia and

the university, announced last March, involves a research facility at the university and collaboration with several academic departments, including the Nanoscience Center and the Engineering division. Nokia said the projected timeline for integration into handheld devices is within seven years, initially through high-end devices, and applications could include lowering the cost of manufacturing.

Chris Hazelton, an analyst with industry research firm IDC, noted that the collaboration supports a general trend toward the development of morphing or changeable phones. Morphing, he said, is the industry’s growing effort to address the need “for greater capability for mobile phones, while getting around the size barrier.”

anatomy Following operate

He noted that the morphing trend includes designs in which design literally chases operate, such as the keypad in Motorola’s Rokr E8, in which a 12-key alphanumeric pad for phone use can become a media playback pad with play, stop and other functions.

He…

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