There is just one main reason why our phones have ringtones – to inform us that there is someone calling, while other alerts let us know that there is an incoming message or email which we might want to attend to. If you do not want to let the world know that you use a Justin Bieber song as your ringtone, you can always take the more discreet route by turning on the vibrate-only mode. However, Nokia might want to change this particular landscape forever by applying for a US patent for a new kind of technology which involves a magnetic tattoo. This magnetic tattoo is capable of transferring a tingling feeling into your arms whenever the phone rings, literally. The thing is, do you want to undergo a tattooing procedure for this benefit and convenience? I am quite sure it would mean not missing a phone call ever again.
According to Nokia, the magnetic tattoo could be magnetized once users have ‘healed’ from the tattooing procedure. This tattoo is capable of offering single and multiple ‘pulses’ in order to signal different things. Apart from buzzing to indicate an SMS, an incoming call or having the smartphone run low on battery power, it might even ‘ring’ as an alarm or a reminder. Basically, you are integrating haptic feedback into your own body – sounds creepy to me, how about you?