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By
Mary
Bellis
''We've printed a phone.''
- Randice-Lisa Altschul
In November of 1999 Randice-Lisa
"Randi" Altschul was issued a series of patents for the world's first disposable
cell phone. Trademarked the Phone-Card-Phone®, the device is the thickness
of three credit cards and made from recycled paper products. This is a
real cell phone (outgoing messages only) with 60 minutes of calling time
and a hands free attachment. You can add more minutes or throw the device
away after your calling time is used up. However, with the planned additional
magnetic strip the cell phone would double as a credit card, swipeable
for purchases with free airtime credits as a bonus. The retail price of
the invention should average twenty dollars, with a two or three dollar
rebate for returning the phone instead of trashing it.
Altschul thought up the invention
after being tempted to toss her cell phone out of her car in frustration
over a bad connection. She realized cell phones were too expansive to lose
or throw away. After clearing the idea with her patent lawyer and making
sure no one else had already invented a disposable cell phone, Randi Altschul
together with engineer Lee Volte, patented both the disposable cell phone
and the super thin technology (STTTM) needed for the Phone-Card-Phone and
other intended products.
The 2" by 3" cell phone will be manufactured
by Altschul's Cliffside Park, New Jersey company, Dieceland Technologies.
The entire phone body, touch pad and circuit board will be made of paper
substrate. The paper-thin cell phone uses an elongated flexible circuit
which will be one piece with the body of the phone, part of the patented
STTTM technology. The ultra thin circuitry is made by applying metallic
conductive inks to paper.
"The circuit itself becomes
the body of the unit," Ms. Altschul said. "And it becomes its own built-in
tamper-proof system because as soon as you cut it open, you break the circuits
and the phone goes dead." -
New York Times
The toy designer with no
prior experience in electronics said she developed the phone by surrounding
herself with experts who shared her ''conceive-it, believe-it, achieve-it''
attitude. - USA Today
"The greatest asset I have over everyone
else in that business is my toy mentality," she said. "An engineer's mentality
is to make something last, to make it durable. A toy's life span is about
an hour, then the kid throws it away. You get it, you play with it and
-- boom -- it's gone." - New York Times
"I'm going cheap and dumb," she told
The
Register, revealing: "In monetary terms, I want to be the next Bill Gates."
- The Register
Randi Altschul's background is in
toys and games. Her first invention was the Miami Vice Game, a cops against
cocaine dealers game named after the "Miami Vice" television series. Altschul
also invented the famous Barbie's 30th Birthday Game, a wearable
stuffed toy that allowed a child to make the toy give hugs and an interesting
breakfast
cereal. The cereal comes in the shape of a monster and dissolves into
mush with milk. Altschul has invested much of her past profits into bringing
the new STTTM products into fruition.
Lee Volte was the senior vice president
of research and development at Tyco, the toy making company, before joining
up with Randi Altschul and Dieceland Technologies.
Altschul and Volte have also created
a paper laptop computer, which will sell for twenty dollars and serve as
an internet access device. The STTTM technology has opened up the potential
for creating countless new electronic products and countless cheaper versions
of pre-existing products. If STTTM is all that it seems to be, this technology
should be considered a milestone in electronic innovation.
Next
page > View the original disposable cell
phone patent > Page 1,
2,
image provided
by Dieceland Technologies |
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