Phone covers modeled after human skin are ready to ruin your weekend

Do you want to feel closer to yoursmartphone? Then take a gander at this scalding hot bucket of nope: mobile device covers designed to look, feel, and react like human flesh.

As first reported by Gizmodo, the "Skin-On Interface" was designed by a team of French human-computer interaction researchers in an effort to create more effective methods of user input.

"When we interact with others, we use skin as interfaces," explains designer Marc Teyssier. "However the objects of mediated communication — such as the smartphone — still has a cold interface that doesn't allow natural interaction and input. In this project, I wanted to make available the perfect human interface that is the skin for existing devices."

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Available in two styles, "simple" and "ultrarealistic," Skin-On interprets user tickling, poking, stretching, grabbing, and[shudder] pinching — as well as the emotions implied by those gestures — in a variety of applications.

Like the human epidermis, Skin-On is made of multiple layers that can detect and interpret pressure across an object's surface. Per the Skin-On prototype video, this allows for back of device interaction and grip detection, among other application specific features — some of which are, presumably, sexier than others.

In addition to mobile devices, Skin-On can be applied to track pads, wearables, select robotics, and I dunno, your nightmares?!

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No words on when (if ever) these monstrosities will be available for purchase. The researchers and designers behind Skin-On will present their work at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology in New Orleans starting Sunday.