Who says you can’t use your iPhone like a laptop? Per the Telegraph, a computer science student in the United Kingdom has used the iPhone’s built-in accelerometer to measure vibrations that are then programmed to correspond with keys on a “virtual keyboard.” So for instance, if you put your iPhone down on a table and tap from a close distance, it will register as one letter while tapping further away will register as a different letter. As the Telegraph notes,this virtual keyboard right now gets the correct letters just 80% of the time, which is something that creator Florian Kraeutli says won’t be improved without a stronger accelerometer. Kraeutli also describes the virtual keyboard as more of a “proof of concept” than a commercially viable invention. A video demonstration of the iPhone keyboard is posted below.

Prior to joining BGR as News Editor, Brad Reed spent five years covering the wireless industry for Network World. His first smartphone was a BlackBerry but he has since become a loyal Android user.