If you're like me, I'm sure you often look at your skillfully crafted iPhone and think: If only it had really big, physical buttons.

Okay, we don't think that at all, but there are reasons that large external knobs, buttons, levers and even tubes could come in handy on a smartphone.

No, seriously — they could, and researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Disney Research have figured out how to harness ultrasonic waves and the iPhone's speaker and microphone to create something called Acoustruments — or, more colloquially, "Passive, Acoustically-Driven, Interactive Controls for Handheld Devices." I know, none of it exactly rolls off the tongue, but the concept is technically sound.

See also: How Force Touch would make the iPhone better

Researchers programmed an iPhone to emit a continuous, ultrasonic sound and then 3D-printed small, hollow tubes they could attach to the base of the phone to guide that sound to the phone's microphone. Next, they added physical buttons, levers, dials and more to interrupt the sound — partially, fully or intermittently. Specialized software on the phone then interprets those changing sound waves to enable a variety of different applications. Through the use of varying tube sizes, rigidities and diameters, the researchers created an impressive array of interactions.

Acoustruments mechanisms Image: Carnegie Mellon University, Disney

"Using smartphones as computers to control toys, appliances and robots already is a growing trend, particularly in the maker community,” said Gierad Laput, a Ph.D. student in Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCII), in a release on the research. He added, “Acoustruments can make the interactivity of these new ‘pluggable’ applications even richer.”

Acoustruments alarm mechanism. Image: Carnegie Mellon University, Disney

As we spend more and more of our time with smartphones, the idea of controlling them through touch alone — when driving, for instance — becomes more attractive. In the video below, researchers showed how an Acoustrument iPhone alarm clock stand could let sleepy heads turn off the alarm by moving a physical switch or snooze the phone by pressing a real button, all without having to open their eyes.

You could do most of these things with Bluetooth accessories, but all of them would require an external power source. Acoustruments work solely with sound waves and the software inside the phone, no batteries needed.

Once the researchers realized they could control a smartphone with sound waves — they claim 99% accuracy — they started building all sorts of wacky things, most of them with the iPhone at the center. There were physical controls for Google Cardboard VR headgear, rocker switches and buttons as part of a custom iPhone GPS car mount, and a case that includes rotary encoders that turn the iPhone into a digital toy car.

Disney's part in all this is unclear until you see the squeezable toy Laput's team built (see above). The interactive doll with an iPhone face uses Acoustrument technology, including touch and proximity, to engage with the user. It's not hard to envision an entire line of affordable Disney Acoustrument toys that do not require any additional batteries. All the toys would need is is Dad or Mom's iPhone stuck inside and they become a huggable, interactive playthings.

Laput's study, of which he's the lead author, will be presented in a paper on Wednesday at CHI 2015, the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, in Seoul, South Korea. You can learn more about Acoustruments in the video below.