Airbags have played a major role in saving lives of drivers and passengers during collision, and over the years, their designs have undergone changes to further improve vehicle safety. While people are thankful for the invention of airbags, smartphones, if they could only talk, would have been thanking Honda, which has been busy in its labs toying with the idea of a smartphone airbag.
Honda, which is well-known for producer automobiles with high safety standards, has released a video featuring a concept Case N equipped with an airbag for smartphones. Handset cases provide a level of protection for the device but a lot of consumers still end up with dented or scratched case or, at worst, chipped or shattered display. It now seems the car manufacturer has taken the safety of smartphones very seriously and it has come up with a concept product to solve the problem.
"For some reason, we really want it to be. Honda has a knack for surprising us with nearly unbelievable inventions designed to improve mankind's quality of life, contraptions like the Walking Assist Device and the UNI-CUB personal mobility devices, so the Case N isn't as far-fetched an idea for the company as you might think," wrote Damon Lowney for car-centric Autoblog that was among the first to scoop the smartphone Case N.
In the video, a Japanese who appears to be a Honda scientist is seen busy working in the lab. He uses a machine with a conveyor belt to drop cellphones to the floor and observes what happens to them. According to a website actually devoted to the project, be it a marketing stunt or a teaser for a future product, the machine specifically designed for the experiment can drop 20 handsets per minute.
Another contraption seen in the video helps reproduce falls from pockets of owners. The simulation involved falling from three different kinds of pocket made of silk, cotton, and denim.
Of course, the highlight of the video is the featured airbag-equipped Case N that can protect smartphones from considerable damages. Honda showed that the gadget can survive falls from a highrise building. At around 3:10 into the video, the scientist drops a smartphone and six airbags were deployed in a blink.
"Acceleration sensor inside the case detects a fall. At that moment, carbon dioxide gas flow at a stretch in the air chamber of six. Time to deployment, 0.2 seconds," states the Japanese website (translated).
Honda has not confirmed if the Case N with airbag will ever go into production or if it will just be another idea that the public will never get to test.
