To better protect hard drives in mobile devices, from laptops to cameras, Sony has issued a patent on a mini liquid airbag. And here's how it works.

A water or silicon oil bag surrounds the drive like a skin. "Biasing units" connect the hard drive to the bag, maintaining the drive's orientation under duress. Meanwhile, the bag has an inner lining of irises. When the bag is put under pressure, these irises are pushed closer together, creating more bag resistance by putting more pressure on the liquid.

So as we understand it, the "airbag" never actually deploys, but is always wrapped around the protected device. As long as liquid is being used, we'd love to see this technology tied in to cooling systems. Two birds, one airbag. We're just wondering if they use really tiny dummies for testing.

[itworld via mobilemag]

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