We use our mobile devices to keep in touch with the ones we love via voice and text, but designer Hayeon Yoo has a different idea for utilizing the global technology involved in communications. Yoo designed the Compass Phone to keep friends and lovers connected through slightly more passive means.

compass phone scenario from hayeon yoo on Vimeo.

The Compass Phone is more compass and less phone; that is to say, it is not really a phone at all. It is a two-part “soft surveillance” device that keeps two people in constant awareness of one another. The blocky wooden gadget features a digital face on its outside and a compass on the inside that points toward its (and the user’s) other half.

The digital face displays the distance between the two halves and how long it will take for them to be reunited. As both partners move around during their daily activities, the twin compasses always point toward each other. As the halves approach one another, the numbers count down to zero. The Compass Phone is a playful aesthetic experiment in mobile communications. While not exactly the most practical of gadgets, it is a truly poetic look at the way we use technology to keep tabs on our loved ones.