Mobile theft victims will thank Paul for the memory

AN Irish invention will spare mobile phone users the tedium of having to key in their numbers again to a new phone when their original handset is lost or stolen.

Thousands of people lose precious contact numbers when their handset goes missing or is taken, but a new memory chip is being worked on by business people here that will store the numbers forever in the phone’s charger.

The invention involves putting the chip in the charger. And this simple technology is not expected to dramatically increase phone prices. The charger was dreamed up after the friend of Irish inventor Paul Stokes had his phone stolen in a pub. Mr Stokes believes the new charger will come as a welcome relief to everyone who has lost precious mobile information.

A patent has been filed on the intelligent phone charger, that downloads all data from the mobile while it’s charging. When a phone is lost or stolen, the numbers will remain in the memory of the charger. Users will also get a special pin number that can transfer the information into a new handset.

“We thought of the idea after a friend left his mobile in the pub and went back five minutes later to find it gone,” Mr Stokes said.

“We thought there must be a way of keeping hold of the numbers that he lost,” he added. Mr Stokes is confident the effective invention will attract interest among phone users worldwide.

No working prototype has been manufactured yet, but the inventors are already in talks with technology giants Siemens.

“Basically, it will just mean putting a chip in the charger and it will not add a lot to the cost,” Mr Stokes said.

The Patents Office said yesterday it could take up to 18 months before a patent is granted.

The loss of hundreds of numbers stored inside a mobile often causes the most inconvenience when a phone is stolen.

Only a small number of careful users make a computer or paper record of the data, and the majority completely rely on the phone as their contact book.

It’s estimated that in the region of 50,000 phones are lost or stolen in Ireland every year.

The invention is also set to attract interest in Britain, where the Home Office believes that 700,000 handsets were stolen last year.