Three provocative phone concepts of the future

Ever wonder what features phones will have four years from now? Lucky for you, if you live in New York, you could head over to the HARDCORE New Finish Design exhibition between May 17-19 to see three fully functional mobile phone prototypes by Provoke Design.

Express, Share, and Feel are three types of phones that incorporate robotics, sensors, and illumination to radically enhance the user's experience.

If Provoke Design gets this right, you won't need Swarovski crystals to bling your phone in the future. Its "Express" phone concept helps users personalize their phone with illumination they can manipulate to enhance their mood. The phone's lighting system can change colors, and intensity as often as the user wants to suit their mood.

The touchy-feely "Feel" phone concept was designed with couples in mind, so it incorporates a specialized user interface and touch simulation feature that enables deep communication—whatever that means.

And last but not least, the "Share" phone was designed for social butterflies who want to connect outside their virtual worlds. This phone apparently shares information among groups through personalized codes and by tagging content to locations so groups can challenge each other.

These are just three concepts based on one company's vision of what they think consumers will want in the year 2012. What do you think? You think these designers are on to something?