Home phones are becoming much less prominent than a decade ago now that we have cell phones with us at all times. There's no point in having a home phone just to receive calls when your mobile device serves the exact same function. Yet UrbanHello, a new French company was awarded the sought-after "Innovations Award" this year at CES for their new "Smart home phone" design that may just convince us otherwise. 

The UrbanHello phone is an intelligent device that knows when you're holding it up to your ear or when you've put it down. When answering calls by holding it up, the phone will automatically project HD sound through the earphones and when placed down, the loudspeakers come on. This makes conference calls and hands-free calling so much more convenient. 

It is a quickly setup device as well as UrbanHello promises the ease of "Plug-and-Play"; the three words that we love to hear. To keep things simple, the phone comes equipped with the essential mechanical buttons needed to dial and get your way the device. Two OLED displays located on top and on the bottom of the handset show the relevant information. To help with energy-saving, the displays are self activated only when the phone is in use. 

As with a lot of new startup ideas, they look to Kickstarter and the power of crowd-sourcing for help. Head on over to their campaign page to support the design and idea.