Everything this year seems to be all about being “eco-friendly” and “green”. Well, in the mobile electronics industry, this trend is nothing new.

Nokia had announced their Eco Sensor Concept phone a while back, and at this year’s CES, they have a non-working prototype on display. From the official website:

The concept consists of two parts – a wearable sensor unit which can sense and analyze your environment, health, and local weather conditions, and a dedicated mobile phone.

The sensor unit will be worn on a wrist or neck strap made from solar cells that provide power to the sensors. NFC (near field communication) technology will relay information by touch from the sensors to the phone or to or to other devices that support NFC technology.

Both the phone and the sensor unit will be as compact as possible to minimize material use, and those materials used in the design will be renewable and/or reclaimed. Technologies used inside the phone and sensor unit will also help save energy.

The neck strap of the sensor unit is also made of solar cells, which will provide all the power the sensor needs in order to operate. Another cool feature is that you will be able to choose which sensors you would like to have inside the sensing device, thereby customizing the device to your needs and desires. For example, you could use the device as a “personal trainee” if you were to choose a heart-rate monitor and motion detector (for measuring your walking pace). Personally, that would be quite cool to have.

The Nokia Eco Sensor Concept is built upon the three underlying principles of waste reduction: reduce, reuse and recycle. To complete the Nokia Eco Sensor Concept, the phone and detector units will be optimized for lower energy consumption in both the manufacturing process and use.

Check out the pictures of the prototype over at Ubergizmo.

[Nokia]