One thing a phone or video call can’t make up for is the physical feeling of touch that comes with being close to someone. In an experimental attempt to bring physical sensations into phone calls, two students at the Royal College of Art in London have designed a pair of devices that translate the user’s speech into a series of simple haptic patterns you can feel based on their intonation and volume.

Innovation design engineering students Hoonjan and Zhang created the devices to connect people who have been physically separated as a result of situations such as the coronavirus lockdown in a “more intimate” way. Two attachments, a brush-style blue silicone feeler and a piece of silicone shaped like a tongue, produce different sensations. They have named the device Feel the Conversation.

The up and down movement made by the silicone attachments is a more exaggerated version of a smartphone’s vibration function, explained the designers. The feelers create a massaging effect that’s “both pleasant yet exciting” when held to the user’s ear. Hoonjan and Zhang designed the additional silicone tongue to offer something more recognizably human.

“A friend told me, ‘people are missing the feeling of touch, I can’t lean into the zoom window, or my phone to actually feel like I’m close to them’,” Hoonjan told Dezeen, the design magazine. “In conversation with colleagues, I found there is an increase in ‘skin hunger’, which is a real issue for mental health, as we are social creatures, and touch is a big part of that,” the designer continued.

While Feel the Conversation was designed before the coronavirus outbreak, Hoonjan and Zhang have received multiple requests to produce more of the phones due to the distancing measures that have been put in place as a result of the pandemic.

The world may seem a bit strange now that we’re now looking at phones with physical feelings as a solution, but then again, wouldn’t it be fun to add another dimension to phone calls?