Okay, the news may be old hat, but it certainly deserves a mention. Way back in 2011, Osaka University and NTT DoCoMo partnered to create Elfoid. It’s a mobile phone with a featureless face that’ll haunt you in your dreams if you stare at it even for a minute.
Elfoid measures eight inches and feels fleshy, courtesy the urethane skin that covers it. With no visible buttons to operate it, you need to get a little touchy feely with Elfoid. When in use, the buttons glow green.
Apparently, the Japanese feel that such a mobile brings a human element to a long-distance communication. If it works for them, who are we to complain?
(source)