IT'S the mobile phone that's shaped like a person.

Developed by Japanese researchers, then Elfoid is a human-shaped mobile phone with a skin-like outer layer that enables users to feel closer to those on the other end.

It even wiggles and talks to you in the voice of the person of the other end.

Creepy? You bet - the Elfoid is a smaller version of the Telenoid R1, the robotic answering machine developed by the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR).

Telenoid R1 looked more than a little like a disembodied Casper, and could mimic speech and gestures sent to it by video-phone, replicating a distant caller's presence.

The Elfoid is the same, but fits in your pocket and tickles you when you've got a call.

"The mobile phone may feel like the person you are talking to," the ATR said, describing the gadget as a "revolutionary telecom medium".

The project is a collaboration between Osaka University, the mobile telephone operator NTT DoCoMo and other institutes.

They hope to put it into commercial production within five years by adding image and voice recognition functions.

The prototype, slightly bigger than the size of a palm, features an outer coating that feels like human skin, ATR officials said.

A speaker is installed in the head of the doll-like gadget and a light-emitting diode in its chest turns blue when the phone is in use and red when it is in standby mode.

The body resembles a human being but its design is so blurred that it could be taken as either male or female and young or old, the ATR said.