Although some claim airbags can actually be quite harmful in a crash, Sony clearly thinks they're the perfect thing to protect your other life-support machine: your mobile phone.

The electronics giant has applied to the US Patent and Trademark Office for a patent to take the airbag concept a stage further and develop a specialist water-tight chamber designed to protect a mobile phone's electronic innards in the event of an otherwise fatal drop.

According to Sony's patent application (http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220070120999%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20070120999&RS=DN/20070120999), the water-tight casing would surround the internal electronics of a mobile phone and then be placed within a second liquid-filled container, which would be perforated with holes.

Sony's airbag-for-phones concept

In the event of a drop, the inner bag would push against the liquid and squeeze it through the holes and out into an outer chamber, therefore reducing the force of the impact.

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