{"id":296308,"date":"2018-09-28T20:47:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-29T00:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/uncategorized\/look-at-this-creepy-finger-you-can-plug-into-your-smartphone.php"},"modified":"2018-09-28T20:47:57","modified_gmt":"2018-09-29T00:47:57","slug":"look-at-this-creepy-finger-you-can-plug-into-your-smartphone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/futurism\/look-at-this-creepy-finger-you-can-plug-into-your-smartphone.php","title":{"rendered":"Look at This Creepy Finger You Can Plug Into Your Smartphone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p><h2>PAY BACK<\/h2><p>We tap away on our mobile devices all day long. Isn&rsquo;t it about time they tapped us back?<\/p><p>Human-computer interaction researcher Marc Teyssier clearly&nbsp;thinks so. He&rsquo;s the brains behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marcteyssier.com\/projects\/mobilimb\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MobiLimb<\/a>, a horrifying&nbsp;finger-like robotic attachment for smartphones and tablets&nbsp;that somehow simultaneously&nbsp;evokes &ldquo;The Addams Family&rdquo; and &ldquo;Black Mirror.&rdquo;<\/p><p>Today, he published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Ej0B1dSnqOg\">a video<\/a> demonstrating all the ways the robotic finger can creep you out&nbsp;&mdash; including by softly stroking the back of your hand while you mess around on your phone.<\/p><h2>SINGLE DIGIT<\/h2><p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marcteyssier.com\/content\/publications\/uist18-mobilimb-teyssier.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">paper<\/a> Teyssier will present at the Berlin User Interface Software and Technology conference in October, the MobiLimb uses&nbsp;five precisely-controllable motors to make a great range of finger-like motions.<\/p><p>Sometimes Teyssier isn&rsquo;t feeling the standard black plastic look, so he covers the robotic finger with one of two custom skins &mdash; a fur-covered one and a fleshy model that (kinda, sorta) makes it look like a human finger.<\/p><h2>POINTLESS POINTER<\/h2><p>In the video, Teyssier demonstrates how MobiBot can drag a smartphone across a surface, wag back and forth like a tail, and tap the table to signal a notification. Its one truly useful skill might be serving as a smartphone stand, but, um, those already exist. And they don&rsquo;t look eerily like a dismembered digit.<\/p><p>For now, MobiLimb will likely remain relegated to the category of tech we probably don&rsquo;t need, but that we&rsquo;re glad someone created, if for no reason other than that&nbsp;it&rsquo;s weird and we like weird.<\/p><p><strong>READ MORE:&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marcteyssier.com\/projects\/mobilimb\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Smartphone With a Finger? Augmenting Mobile Devices With a Robotic Limb<\/a> [Marc Teyssier]<\/p><p><strong><em>More on smartphone attachments: <a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/water-pollution-dutch-smartphone-data\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A Clever Smartphone Attachment Will Show if Water Is Contaminated<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-assets.futurism.com\/2018\/09\/robotic-finger-smartphone1-1200x630.png\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/p><p>Link:<br><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/robotic-finger-smartphone\" title=\"Look at This Creepy Finger You Can Plug Into Your Smartphone\">Look at This Creepy Finger You Can Plug Into Your Smartphone<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> PAY BACK We tap away on our mobile devices all day long. Isn\u2019t it about time they tapped us back?  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/futurism\/look-at-this-creepy-finger-you-can-plug-into-your-smartphone.php\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-futurism"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}