But that has never stopped thieves solely. For one, they like to try their chances — some users still don’t lock their phones. And two, some phones can nevertheless be hacked into after a factory reset. Therefore, alternative solutions are always welcome. Swedish company Ericsson (remember the partnership Sony-Ericsson?) has come up with and patented a remarkably high-tech anti-theft system. It’s called “Adaptive Friction” and for now merely exists on paper, filed as a patented idea.

 

Mostly, the phone will use multiple sensors to maintain constant awareness of its contextual environment — whether it is in a pocket, on a table, in a purse, et cetera. It will do this by assessing data from its microphones, light sensor(s), camera(s), and gyroscope. As soon as a hand is laid on the device, it will very quickly try to determine whether or not it is being grabbed by its owner — it will do so by analyzing the grip (whether it is a secure and confident grab, or a cheeky corner pinch) and even by utilizing biometric sensors to analyze the person’s heartbeat and compare it to known heartbeat patterns of the rightful owner.

 

If the phone finds out that it is getting nabbed by an unknown person, it will initiate vibrating at ultrasonic frequencies, which should — in theory — make it super slippery and hard to pinch out of a pocket. Therefore the name “Adaptive Friction” The patent does state that the technology can also be used to make the phone extra grippy and stick to the user’s hand when being used, hence making it harder to drop, which also sounds pretty interesting.

 

Of course, this feels like a whole ton of tech that needs to be tuned to be able to make this work quickly and dependably. As with any patent — there’s no guarantee we’d see it in a phone anytime soon (if ever), but this one surely has some interesting “out of the box” thinking.

 

Source: TRONSERVE