Self-healing iPhone case?

For the Just Too Cool file, this from FBN:

Nissan has announced the world’s first self-healing iPhone case, which the car manufacturer claims can quickly repair itself when scratched.
Developed by the car manufacturer in collaboration with University of Tokyo and Advanced Softmaterials Inc, the self-healing paint – dubbed Scratch Shield – was initially developed for Nissan and Infiniti cars but is now being used in the smartphone industry too.
Bob Laishley of Nissan said: “We like to think laterally by taking the great innovations we’ve got from an automotive point of view and looking at how they could be applied to improve everyday issues. The Scratch Shield iPhone case is a great example of us taking a Nissan automotive technology that has had a huge impact for our customers, and then shifting the boundaries to apply it to another everyday product.”
The paint is made from polyrotaxane, which means that when damage occurs to the coating the chemical structure reacts to change back to its original shape and fill the gap. Nissan does not say to what extent the reaction will work, but small scratches and blemishes could well be a thing of the past.

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6 Comments

  1. albinus1 says:

    If they’re going to start adapting innovations from the automotive industry to cell phones, I have another suggestion. You know those ignition locks that can detect alcohol on your breath and disable the ignition so that you can’t start the car? Perhaps they could adapt that and create a cell phone that can sense when it is in a movie theatre, concert hall, church, or other public venue, and shut itself off.

  2. Mary Jane says:

    After I read this, I had to check the date to make sure it wasn’t April Fools Day…

  3. catholicmidwest says:

    Great invention.
    How it works: http://www.yet2.com/app/insight/techofweek/59972?sid=200

    It won’t take care of really serious scrapes but it will take care of superficial routine ones, according to the makers of this material. It works by using the rotational properties of a particular configuration of polymer material (plastic gel coating/paint). When shoved out of the way to make a scrape, the material rotates on the micro-level and redistributes itself in the original way again.

    The paint material is in production for Japanese cars and other consumer products. According to what I’m seeing a few of these phones were made up for a trade show and they were a hit. Even the application is very clever.

  4. rcg says:

    It ain’t all that great. I slammed the trunk on my Altima and now I can’t open it.

  5. Mike Morrow says:

    It’s so nice to prevent those terrible minute scratches on something of such eternal beauty, value, and usefulness as a cell phone! Who doesn’t want their 2012 smartphone to look just perfect in 2062?

  6. Mrs. O says:

    Interesting. I’ve had no luck with Nissan products or service. Will let others try that out. Those lil scratches don’t concern me really. But paint that can do that is neat.

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