We’ve all either had it happen to us or been there when it happened to someone else: you’re somewhere where cell phones are verboten and the contemplative silence is shattered because someone forgot to switch their phone to vibrate.

Nokia has just filed a patent application for a radical solution that has the potential to change all of that. The patent application describes the technology as follows:

“…a material attachable to skin, the material capable of detecting a magnetic field and transferring a perceivable stimulus to the skin.”

What it amounts to is a magnetic tattoo that vibrates when it detects a magnetic field – because to have any sort of lasting benefit, it would have to be a semi-permanent addition to one’s body. Taping it to the skin might work, but that would be troublesome and the device would be easy to lose. As uncomfortable as it sounds, attaching it as a tattoo or an implant would be the simplest way to do it.

While it is bound to interest a few people, this author thinks that the vast majority of the smartphone using population probably isn’t interested in getting a vibrating magnetic tattoo just yet.