Our smartphones are cold, passive devices that usually can't move autonomously unless they're falling onto our faces while we're looking at them in bed. A research team in France is exploring ways to change that by giving our smartphones the ability to interact with us more (via New Scientist). MobiLimb is a robotic finger attachment that plugs in through a smartphone's Micro USB port, moves using five servo motors, and is powered by an Arduino microcontroller. It can tap the user's hand in response to phone notifications, be used as a joystick controller, or, with the addition of a little fuzzy sheath accessory, it can turn into a cat tail. MobiLimb is a research project by PhD student Marc Teyssier and his team across from French universities.

Have you ever wished your phone could tap you when you had a notification, drag itself over to you on its own or touch you back? Researchers in France have developed a finger-like phone and tablet attachment that can do all of those things and more. Called MobiLimb, it's made up of five servo motors, an Arduino microcontroller and a sensor, and it can do a number of unsettling things that are straight out of nightmares. "In the spirit of human augmentation, which aims at overcoming human body limitations by using robotic devices, our approach aims at overcoming mobile device limitations (static, passive, motionless) by using a robotic limb," Marc Teyssier, one of the researchers behind MobiLimb, writes on his website. And to be fair, MobiLimb actually has some rather useful capabilities.

The future of smartphones might not be flashy technology like augmented reality, but a device that actually takes a page from the real world - at least, if one researcher has his way. Marc Teyssier, a PhD student at the University of Paris-Saclay in France, has developed the'MobiLimb,' a robotic finger that turns into a phone accessory when it's plugged into a USB port. It serves as a literal helping hand, functioning as a phone stand, extra grip to hold onto your phone or a way to act out emojis. The robotic finger is fitted with a series of actuators and sensors that allow it to move and interact with users. Actuators, or motors, are mounted in each link of the finger to give it a full range of motion.