Communicating through the medium of shivers

Students from the University of Dundee unveiled a raft of “next generation mobile ‘phones'” on Monday night.

None of the designs, made by students from the College of Art, Science and Engineering, support voice, text, pictures or video. Instead, the models are geared for “intimacy and sensuality”.

Designs include the ‘Aware’, a necklace which sends a tingle down the wearer’s back whenever a friend is in the vicinity; the ‘M:ssage’ massaging device, which is operated remotely by text message; the ‘Hive’, which uses tiny LEDs to let its owner know when there are other ‘Hives’ in the vicinity, and the ‘Boom Tube’ which lets users create their own music and send it to other users over the network.

All the products are available to buy on the phone | not phone website, and some UK-based network operator has agreed to back the service. “Sensitive to the potential disruption to their market, our partner has chosen to remain anonymous at this stage,” the University said.

Sarah McMichael, one of the students who designed the ‘Aware’, said, “We have designed a phone for everyone. Our aim was to get away from the unsocial mobile phones that today’s world is being taken over by, to learn to communicate and interact with each other on a new level.”