An Anti-Smartphone With a Rotary Designed and Built by Space Engineer Justine Haupt

[demmiblue]

Justine Haupt, a developer of astronomy instrumentation at Brookhaven National Laboratory, spent the last three years developing a device that strips away all of the non-phone functions of modern smartphones. The Portable Wireless Electronic Digital Rotary Telephone (aka Rotary Cellphone) does not have a touchscreen, menus, or other superfluous features. It fits in Haupt’s pocket, and it makes calls.

The first version of Haupt’s anti-smartphone was made using a cellphone radio development board. As the project progressed, she worked out a way to make it compact, to view missed calls on a small display, and to ensure that the device could be taken apart and fixed if necessary. While the Rotary Cellphone may seem like a fun novelty, Haupt (until now a devoted flip phone user) says that is not the point. Everything from the removable antenna to dedicated speed dial keys for her husband and other contacts is utilitarian and a direct contrast to the devices many of you are reading this article on right now.

“This is a statement against a world of touchscreens, hyperconnectivity, and complacency with big brother watchdogs,” Haupt writes on her website. In a post sharing the open source design, she adds that “in a finicky, annoying, touchscreen world of hyperconnected people using phones they have no control over or understanding of, I wanted something that would be entirely mine, personal, and absolutely tactile, while also giving me an excuse for not texting.” (via Kottke)





https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/02/justine-haupt-rotary-cellphone/

[Irish_Dem]

1. Ha, kids will have to ask grandparents how to use this!

Grandma, show me how to work this, how do I make a call?

[COLGATE4]

2. The only thing missing

is the crank on the side in order to contact "Central"

[lapfog_1]

3. ridiculous luddite

The rotary dial is just for show... no phone system actually interacts with the clicks made (pulse dialing) because this is still a packet driven cell phone.

so what was the point?

[eppur_se_muova]

5. No more butt-dialing, maybe ? nt

[hlthe2b]

6. well, I'm no Luddite & I embrace tech, but there is something amusing about the old rotary dial AND

i find this a little heart-warming. Apparently, it does work, so he's figured out a way to make the rotary interact with current cell systems. There's always a work-around.

So, take it for the humorous aside that it is. Everything is too damned deadly serious right now

[demmiblue]

7. Not to mention that a developer of astronomy instrumentation is hardly a Luddite!

She probably spends all day surrounded by technology.



Design Engineer Justine Haupt is pictured in front of the cryostat she designed for testing LSST's electro-optic sensor modules. She is holding one of the compact front-end electronic assemblies that will enable the camera to be read out at a remarkable 1.5 billion pixels per second.


I like fun, quirky things!

[Chainfire]

4. I use a flip phone, I have never sent or opened a text message

If I want to communicate with someone, I want to talk to them. If someone needs to communicate with me, they can talk to me. This could be my next phone!

[Ptah]

8. Call me.

We'll chat.