Ivy Chen¹ and Ang Li², ¹USA, ²California State University, USA

According to recent statistics, 75.4% of people with access to the internet are addicted to their phones. 78 percent of teenagers check their mobile devices at least hourly [2]. The purpose of this paper is to propose a tool that lowers users’ dependence on their electronic devices. The tool named Phone Cage is created with the aim of locking electronic device for a set period of time. The application involves the user setting a specific mobile application for a specified amount of time. The phone cage provides the user a display countdown of the remaining time frame through which the locked application is inaccessible. The app provides access only when the set timer reaches the zero mark. This tool is created using Tinker cad, 3D- printer, Thunkable, Firebase console, and Raspberry Pi Zero. This will act as perfect remedy for individuals with addiction to their phones. It will also be a way for parents to control their children’s use of mobile phones. Therefore, noting that a significant number of people lack selfcontrol when it comes to cell phone usage, the cage will be of great help. The project will therefore have great impact to the community by allowing families to spend more time together and not on their phones. It will also help adults place more focus on their jobs and not on their phones. The application has been tested by distributing the Phone Cage to ten randomly selected people across all age groups and conducted a qualitative evaluation of the approach. The result shows that the app has tremendously shrunk their work time and produced work with equal, if not higher quality.

Phone cage, Smartphone, Raspberry PI, IOS/Android.