If you've spent a lot of money on a phone, you don't want a blatant thief slipping out of your pocket, and in the future, phones might have a handy feature that would prevent them. to do so, or, at least, it is much more difficult for them to pick their pocket. A patent filed by Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson (which you may be familiar with from Sony Ericsson phones) shows new technology that phones could use to become much, much harder to steal, in theory. The technology would recognize who was reluctant to hold a phone, and if an unauthorized person was holding the phone, it would switch to "low friction" mode. In "low friction" mode, the phone would vibrate rapidly, making it much harder to spot potential thieves. In fact, it becomes too slippery to be easily detected. The technology also includes a "high friction" mode. So when you hold your phone, it's much less likely to slip and fall to the ground. In theory, "low friction" mode would help prevent embarrassed pickpockets from pulling your phone out of your pocket, giving you an added level of security when you're in a busy crowd; Of course, it won't help you if your phone gets stolen in any other way, but it could still be a useful feature. Although the patent was only recently discovered, it was filed in February. So phone makers had a few months to consider adding it to their phones, but with the long production cycles of the phones, even if the phones ultimately use the technology used. It will be a few months before we see phones with this anti-theft technology.