French designers Philippe Starck and Jerome Olivet have created a smartphone concept called "Alo" which features a jelly-like translucent "skin" that can repair itself automatically on being damaged.
Philippe Starck, an acclaimed designer, helped Jerome Olivet with his art direction to create Alo, the smartphone concept that imagines a touchscreen-less smartphone.
According to the designers, Alo does not have the typical smartphone display. Instead, it boasts a voice-commanded feature that projects 3D holograms from its camera whenever it has to show text messages or let the user watch videos, said Olivet in an interview with Dezeen.
According to Olivet's website, the core of the device is made up of molded aluminum alloy and the outer shell is a "gelatinous, supple and natural envelope that perfectly fits your hand". According to the report by Deezan, the surface of the phone will also vibrate and give off heat as another means of interaction.
Olivet promises that Alo will fit "perfectly" in the user's hand but according to Mashable, the concept images look slippery as hell and not ideal for those prone to dropping their phones. However, the designers have thought of this problem too because the "magic outside material repairs automatically as soon as it is damaged."
Alo is also expected to come with an Artificial Intelligence assistant (not to be confused with Google's AI-centric messaging app, Allo, which comes with Google Assistant) that will respond to user's voice commands and learn each user's speech patterns, thus becoming the user's "privileged personal assistant," said Olivet.
Alo, which is entirely operated by voice commands has a camera which acts as an "eye" to read texts or identify faces. Alo is just a concept for now but the designers do have a plan to at least make some sort of prototype as soon as possible.