Vienna-based designer Klemens Schillinger has built a product called the ‘Substitute Phone’ that aims to help with the increasingly common affliction of smartphone addiction.
The ‘Substitute Phone’ comes in five models and reportedly looks and feels like a standard phone, though instead of a screen there are stone beads embedded in slots at a variety of angles. The beads allow users to swipe, pinch and scroll in order to satisfy the urge or pulling out your smartphone.
Substitute Phones are made from black polyoxymethylene that simulates the feeling of a phone, while the beads consist of Howlith stone. According to Engadget, Schillinger says the Substitute Phone aims to calm users and helps them cope with the withdrawal symptoms, also called the ‘checking behaviour.’
“More and more often one feels the urge to check their phone, even if you are not expecting a specific message or call,” Schillinger told Dezeen. “These observations inspired the idea of making a tool that would help stop this ‘checking’ behaviour.”
Moreover, Schillinger said that the Substitute Phone was inspired by the tactile aspect of a smoking addiction. The Substitute Phone and Schillinger’s Offline Lamp — a lamp that only turns by inserting your into the lamp — are part of Vienna’s Design Week. These two projects are not available for the public, at least not right now.
Source: Dezeen
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