Nokia phone shows off wearable electronics

It can be used as a keyboard, and it can even be used as a bracelet - but it's really a phone which Nokia thinks can lead the way in the next generation of mobile technology.

The Morph phone has been developed by the Finnish mobile phone company and nanotechnology experts at Cambridge University, and was recently unveiled at New York's Museum of Modern Art as part of the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition.

It looks like a thinner version of the 1980s Rubik's Magic puzzle toy and can be used as a keyboard when laid flat. While folded either length or width ways it turns into a typical, though very thin, mobile phone or a bracelet that can be worn and connected wirelessly to a headset.

However, the developers claim that the project is based on real research and is not an aspirational piece of design.

"All of the elements of the phone are reflected in real projects that are going on here," said professor Mark Welland, head of the nanoscience group at the University of Cambridge and director of the Nokia collaboration.

"For example, the device's flexibility: we have a project on flexible electronics and can take a piece of electronics and wrap it around your little finger and it still operates."

Flexible electronics have been in production for some time but the research being carried out by Cambridge University and Nokia, which involves 10 researchers from the company and 25 Cambridge scientists, goes much "deeper" than just making devices that are wearable.

Altering materials at their most basic atomic level can create devices that never get wet - because they repel water so effectively - or that can "sense" their surroundings, being able to tell whether food is off or measure the temperature of the wearer. This ability to sense surroundings is the next leap for mobile phones, according to Welland.

"The bits that are more challenging are things such as sensing the world - such as being able to interact more strongly with the environment."

Another sticking point towards producing a viable commercial version of the device is how to power it - battery technology is still too cumbersome to integrate perfectly into a flexible device - but scientists at Cambridge are working on the next generation of batteries under their super-capacitor battery project.

To date, flexible electronics have had a chequered history. One of the pioneers in the flexible electronics field, Buckinghamshire-based Eleksen was forced into administration last year after being unable to raise further funding.

Eleksen had been making fabrics which can be turned into flexible keyboards and wearable iPod controllers for half a decade. It was responsible for last year's iPod suit, sold by Marks & Spencer, which allowed listeners to plug their music player into their suit and control it through a series of buttons on the inside of the jacket.

The business was bought by Peratech, based in North Yorkshire, in January and last week Peratech announced it was spinning its wearable electronics range into a new company called Q10 with a new range planned for the autumn/winter fashion season.