Motorola's new guitar cell phone

Global cell phone giant Motorola is patenting a cell phone that it claims could not only be used as a phone but also as a musical instrument.

Global cell phone giant Motorola is patenting a cell phone that it claims could not only be used as a phone but also as a musical instrument.

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The cell phone displays the layout of a guitar neck on its screen and allows its keypad to be "plucked" or "strummed" by a user, reported the online edition of New Scientist.

The resulting guitar sounds can be played through the phone's speaker or sent to a friend at the other end of the line, it said.

The phone has the usual four rows of keys, but switching to music mode turns the keys into a set of virtual strings that respond to pressing.

Turning a control knob shifts the scale of the selected chord up or down - like a guitar capo - or switches between different types of chord, like major and minor.

The guitar phone can be played live, to adoring fans, or a melody can be composed in private and stored in memory for use as a ring tone or meeting reminder.

Motorola says the phone could even be converted into a banjo or violin at the flick of a switch, with strings automatically retuned.