By Stan Schroeder for MASHABLE
BARCELONA: If you’re one of the people whose gadgets often die a watery death, you’d feel really safe at this year’s Mobile World Congress.
Several different companies are showing off their water-repelling technology at the ShowStoppers event, and though we’ve seen similar tech in the past, it’s always cool to see an iPhone submerged under water or drops of liquid literally running away from a specially treated paper tissue.
A company called P2i has demonstrated its Aridion technology, which protects — according to P2i — over nine million electronic devices, including smartphones, tablets and hearing aids. Aridion uses special pulsed ionized gas (plasma), created within a vacuum chamber, attaching a nanometer-thin polymer layer over the surface of the product.
It looks impressive — a simple paper tissue treated in this way simply refuses to soak in water, with water literally rolling off the material:
P2i wouldn’t say who its clients are — company reps were permitted, they say, to name only one — Motorola. We might not even know it, but many of the gadgets we already use are protected by this or similar technology, which prevents them from corroding as fast as they would otherwise.
Sure enough, P2i is not the only one who’s doing it — another company called HzO showed us the exact same trick with the paper tissue, and we’ve also caught several iPhones, iPod nanos and other gadgets happily working in a bowl of water.
Check out a gallery of water-repellant tech and fearless gadgets working underwater below.
