"What do we get in return for putting away a smartphone?"
Putting a smartphone down is becoming increasingly difficult as they become more engrossing, entertaining, and integrated into our lives. This addiction undoubtedly cripples social interactions, strains personal relationships, and inhibits engagement with our surroundings.
PhoneShade encourages us to detach from our omnipresent smartphone devices by offering a simple but universally appealing incentive: light.
Left to right: from the very first prototype - a translucent shell that diffused the phone’s own flash light, to the first functional prototype with circuitry.
PhoneShade began as a simple question:
"What can we receive in return for resolving to put away our smartphone?"
Usually, there is no immediate benefit when we pry ourselves away from our smartphones, because they’re inherently designed to captivate us. At the same time, research shows that over-dependency and utilization of these ubiquitous devices has profound health and social costs.
Yet even given our awareness of these alarming risks, we struggle to set our phones aside because there rarely seems to be an immediate incentive to do so. Why put down a phone that’s filled with curated content and endless features when we get nothing immediate in return?
What if we were immediately rewarded with something pleasing, functional, and perceptible in exchange for putting our phones away:
Light.
To illuminate PhoneShade, a smartphone must be placed in the space under its translucent silicone shade. There is no other on/off control, and this is the key concept that answers the core challenge of this project.
Placing a phone in PhoneShade activates the inductive charging circuitry between it and the device, a common system that exists in thousands of inductive chargers on the marketplace. In PhoneShade, however, this circuit is what also triggers the LED array beneath the shade to fade in over a span of ten seconds. It's a slow, soothing experience that discourages frequent removal and replacement of the phone. As long as the smartphone remains intentionally obscured within PhoneShade, the light will glow.
In exchange for this simple act of putting away a smartphone, we receive a beautiful accent light that can set the mood for a space, or simply indicate that we are present to those around us. In the meantime, PhoneShade keeps the phone charged.
While you focus on the people and environment around you, PhoneShade becomes a cozy accent light in a space - even a symbol that you are present in the moment. It ensures your smartphone is ready when you decide you need it back - not when a notification lights up the phone's display.
Instead of separate feet on the bottom of the base, the silicone shade itself extends below the base to provide stability and grip on surfaces…
The anodized aluminum base houses the inductive coil that charges your phone and features a simple capacitive brightness adjustment machined onto the surface. The main electronics housing, molded in white ABS to maximize light reflection, attaches onto the base magnetically, connecting it to the upper housing via pogo pin connectors. This main housing holds the LED array, a lithium battery, and the circuitry. By having these kinds of magnetic, easily replaceable modules, PhoneShade can be greatly customized to an individual. The rechargeable battery acts as a portable power supply, so PhoneShade can be used anywhere around the home, regardless of its proximity to a wall outlet.
PhoneShade is designed around modular components. A semi-flexible, molded silicone "shade" snaps magnetically onto the aluminum base, and can be replaced by a one of a different color or form factor.
Maintaining omnidirectional usability was a key goal for a device whose form embraces radial symmetry. To facilitate easy recharging of PhoneShade’s internal battery, it is simply placed onto a weighted docking station which aligns and attaches magnetically.