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Screen size is becoming a real focal point for mobile technology companies. Too big and the device becomes unwieldily and unpocketable, too small and it becomes inappropriate for media consumption and risks being tricky to use. But a new case for the iPhone — Fuffr — has potentially found a solution which could reduce the importance of the issue.

The case, designed by engineers in Stockholm, could greatly expand the iPhone’s capabilities and practical uses. The team claim the case doesn’t use any of the phone’s existing technology or sensors to function. Rather it makes use of its own motion sensor, which feeds back to the phone via Bluetooth LE. Many of the trial videos demonstrate the case’s potential usefulness for gaming — by keeping fingers out of the way of the on-screen action — but it’s not difficult to imagine a wealth of other applications. Perhaps for scrolling through an on-screen recipe by touching a work surface when cooking with messy hands, for example. You can see the case in action in the video below:

Provided the case isn’t too much of a drain on battery life, it could open up new doors for app designers everywhere. How else could cases be used to improve a phone’s performance beyond protection and boosting battery?