Dropping your $1000 iPhone X can be a costly and traumatic experience, but a clever student in Germany may have found the perfect solution: built-in airbags.
Philip Frenzel, a student from Aalen University in Germany, invented a new form of smartphone protection called the AD Case. Instead of using actual airbags though, AD Case packs built-in sensors that detect when a phone is dropping and then deploys eight springs that actively dampen the fall.
Prepare to be amazed:
AD Case looks like it performs miraculously when dropped over a smooth surface, but it might not be as reliable on rocky uneven surfaces. The prototype won Frenzel the top award from the German Society for Mechatronics.
No word on when or if the AD Case will actually hit the market. A patent for it has already been registered though, so it could eventually make its way to the market. Hopefully, with a slightly less ugly form factor.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
