The Emotional Phone

posted by Anson Ong on Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Nowadays, mobile phones do more than what they are initially meant to do – allow two or more parties to communicate. Take a reality check here: the level of sophistication that goes into any mobile phone you can find today is, quite frankly, mind-boggling. Take the high-end smartphone, for example. You can take pictures with it, record a video, listen to songs, play games, shop online, etc. While we appreciate the convenience that modern mobile phones bring, let’s not forget the nostalgic past when the telephone lived up to its name, literally.

Remember the days when you got so thrilled receiving the first text messages from your friends or loved ones? A mobile phone is actually a mixed bag of emotional cues. You can customise the ringtone depending on your mood – chirpy tones when you are happy, sad grooves when you are feeling down. At an emotional level, it has probably become a man’s (or woman’s) “best friend”, or so to speak.

So, why not a mobile phone that can virtually shorten the distances between you and those you care? This concept is the driving force behind the design of the Gaia phone. Its interface is made up of your friends and family photos, with the closest ones appearing foremost on the screen. The higher the frequency of contacting your friend, the clearer the photo of that friend will appear. What’s more interesting, it detects your best friend if he/she is just around the vicinity. It promises to represent your “identity”. With a spectacular show of lights that illuminate whenever your boyfriend/girlfriend calls you, when you have a greeting message from him or her, or when there is a status update of your good friend, this phone displays “emotions” to highlight these events.

In short, it is like a Facebook with “faces” attached to the virtual wall of the phone, plus the fascinating light beats and intuitive functions that detect your loved ones around you. Perhaps, it is about time that we stop being obsessed about the iPhones, to ponder about the real meanings behind communication as well as to transform ourselves back to the emotional state of being human after all.