Australian designer Klemens Schillinger has created a tool to help smartphone addicts cope with withdrawal – called The Substitute Phone.

Schillinger designed the tool in response to addictive tendencies not only to use smartphones, but also to have them in hand and reflexively check them.

The Substitute Phone is supposed to help those overly attached to their phones to "stop this 'checking' behavior," Schillinger told Dezeen.

The product comes in five models, with stone beads arranged in various patterns embedded in heavy, polyoxymethylene plastic, to fit the swiping and scrolling habits of each user.

"The object, which some of us describe as a prosthesis, is reduced to nothing but the motions. This calming limitation offers help for smartphone addicts to cope with withdrawal symptoms," reads the product description.

Schillinger explains smartphone addiction like any other, and kicking the habit may require a substitute. He drew inspiration for the product from the writer Umberto Eco, who substituted his pipe for a stick to hold in hand while trying to quit smoking.

"It was the same thing, but without the nicotine, just the physical stimulation. I remembered this and thought to make phones that would provide the physical stimulation but not the connectivity," said Schillinger.

The Substitute Phone isn't for sale yet, but made its debut at the Vienna Design Week earlier this fall.