It's that heart-lurching moment millions of us dread. For a split second you stand utterly helpless as your dropped iPhone plunges towards an unforgiving pavement.
But now inventors have devised an unlikely answer to one of modern life’s most expensive little mishaps – an airbag for your smartphone.
Motion-sensing technology already built into most smartphones is used to detect when it has dropped – and the mini airbag is then deployed before it hits the floor.
The idea is the brainchild of retail and technology giant Amazon, which has patented the protective system for mobile phones, electronic readers such as Amazon’s own Kindle, computer tablets and cameras.
This week the company won approval for the patent, which was filed in America by Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, 48, a self-made billionaire who has forged a career from pioneering ideas.
The patent reads: ‘Prior to impact between a surface and a device, a determination of a risk of damage to the device is made. If the risk of damage to the device exceeds a threshold, a protection system is activated to reduce or eliminate damage to the device.’
The patent details a system that utilises a gadget’s built-in gyroscope, camera, accelerometers and other onboard sensors in order to determine if the device has entered an airborne state. If it has, the technology will release airbags to reduce potential damage – or possibly even change the trajectory of its fall by firing jets of air.
It may sound far-fetched but there is no doubting the idea has a market, as iPhone owners in the UK alone spend tens of millions of pounds a year repairing their devices.
Victor Seidel, a lecturer in science entrepreneurship at Oxford University, last night applauded the effort to try new ideas, saying: ‘I am not sure the next phone I buy will be fitted with an airbag but we are often surprised by what ideas become successful.
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