A human shaped mobile phone with skin like feel

Coming soon: The phone, which is named Elfoid, is slightly bigger than the palm of a hand and has a speaker installed in the head of the doll-like gadget.

Japanese scientists have developed a mobile phone which not only looks like a human being; its body also feels like skin.

"The mobile phone may feel like the person you are talking to," said the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR), which has developed the mobile in association with Osaka University.

The phone, which is named Elfoid, is slightly bigger than a palm and has a speaker installed in the head of the doll-like gadget.

The body resembles a human being but its design is so blurred that it could be either male or female and young or old. A light-emitting diode in its chest turns blue when the phone is in use and red when it is in standby mode.

"The new technology is designed to allow individuals in remote locations to converse in such a way that they feel each other's presence through voice, appearance, touch and motion," the researchers told 'The Telegraph' of UK.

Scientists are hoping to start its commercial production after adding image and voice recognition functions to it.