14 DAY TRIAL // As years go by, more and more cell phone concepts appear, some from important manufacturers and other from simple users that believe they have a great idea and want to share it with the whole world.
One of the latest concepts unveiled is the Atlas Kinetic cell phone, a handset that doesn't have a battery, because it doesn't need one to function. The device would get its power from kinetic energy, in the same way kinetic watches do (Seiko, the Japanese producer, is well-known for making these types of watches), so all it needs is for its user to simply move it or shake it.
Designed by Ricardo Baiao, the Atlas Kinetic Cell Phone is made out of glass and aluminum and only offers a basic functionality, no "fancy multi-media stuff": make and receive calls, send and receive text messages, and that's all. The handset has a very futuristic design, coming with an interesting (but small) display and a keypad that we don't get to see very often - its keys are arranged to form a circle.
It is, nevertheless, a cool concept, but I'm not sure that this kind of phone can really function in the same way a kinetic watch functions. First of all, because kinetic watches need less power than a mobile phone would require (even if we talk about a basic-featured mobile phone). Secondly, a watch is always "attached" to the wrist, so we don't really have to make special moves to power it - we move our hand(s) almost all the time, during most of our activities. With a kinetic mobile phone, things would be a bit different, as we surely can't keep it in hand all the time, and moving it while in the pocket would look, well, weird (at least).
So, for the Atlas Kinetic concept to become reality, someone must find a way of storing as much energy as possible, while using as little movement as possible. Anyone? :)
