Last week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple the patent for its device that can shift your phone in midair when dropped, in order to protect the sensitive areas.

The device works with sensors to monitor its positioning and to essentially determine if the phone is falling and how it is, and does some pretty amazing things. The device works in two ways. First, it can “selectively alter the center of mass of an electronic device” (i.e. the phone or iPod). Second, it has an enclosure that can partially enclose and protect the processor and sensor. Pretty neat, right? It doesn’t stop there, however.

The device works by making multiple and rapid calculations to determine the phone’s position, and actually the more it is dropped the more it learns. If a user is a big klutz, the device can remember how it fell and that can help improve further calculations. THAT STILL ISN’T ALL.

The sensor device can actually communicate between your Apple devices, so if you drop your iPhone frequently, the device will relay that to your iPod and it will be able to mimic the trajectory previous times.

As an Android user I’m always initially reluctant to give Apple credit, but this is just absolutely amazing. It will be interesting to see how the phone is actually able to change its trajectory, though, possibly with a mini-gyroscope?

Right now this is only being applied to simple tech devices like our phones, but when you look at the bigger picture, this technology could make some great advances in our world. The downside to this, however, is thinking about how iPhone prices will skyrocket after this is applied and marketed, as if they’re not high enough already.