As the phone becomes a data device, figuring out a better way to input data and interact with the phone will become crucial. Tiny keyboards are sub-optimal. Touch screens smudge up. Voice commands? Please. What about waving to your phone? That’s what Sony Ericsson is suggesting in a patent application filed today. It would use the phone’s camera to capture hand gestures, which could then be interpreted as navigation instructions. It seems rather obvious tome. I’ve seen similar demonstrations using cameras and laptops. The fact that the camera is on a phone does not seem particularly novel. But then, as the Biggman at CrunchGear says:
Patents are ideas officially recorded by companies to ensure no one else gets them first. They are not “roadmaps” nor is there any proof that they will ever be implemented in any actual device at any time.
He also worries about real-world limitations of such technology, such as the cat walking by and somehow activating the device with her tail.
We will probably see a few hand gestures that puts the the middle finger for a good use.
This is going to confuse the deaf.
Now that is awesome! I like that very much. Imagine you show your phone F**** sign
and he does something weird or shut’s off on you lol
For this to work, the phone’s camera would need to always be on… don’t like that… not one bit.
Shouldn’t they put a few around the monkey house at the zoo until they produce a one of Shakespeare’s sonnets.
On second thought it would be too expensive to produce that many phones. How about just enough phones to write the next Rocky movie – 5 phones, 5 monkeys, 5 days, tops.
is that all they can come with? innovation should aim to make tasks easier for the user. IMO waving to a camera takes more effort than pressing a button, unless you’re waving from a distance.
Even when people are playing with (err… testing) my iPhone, they ask if it smudges, which is funny because it’s usually smudged while they’re playing with it. Smudges are pretty unnoticeable while you’re using it thanks to the bright screen, and they’re easy to remove thanks to “optical quality glass” Apple boasts about. It’s a non-issue.
Is it really appropriate that a company which designs a phone with a camera that looks for hand movements will now have to pay money to Sony Ericsson, as the “inventors” of this oh-so-clever concept? Patents are out of control.
Another example of “gestural interfaces” which will no doubt become more popular in the future. They have certain uses though it doesn’t necessarily replace the current interface nor is it meant to. I guess use of gestural interface makes more sense in front of a large screen (much like Minority Report) than using a mobile phone since you also have to keep the phone in your hand or if you are using it from a distance the small screen wont let you see what you are doing.
“He also worries about real-world limitations of such technology, such as the cat walking by and somehow activating the device with her tail.”
I hope no-one thinks this is a frivolous furry animal reference to round off the article. This is serious. Untold economic damage has already been caused by cats walking over keyboards at critical moments (”Dear Capital Partners, thank you for agreeing to consider our investment proposFGDSIGJDFOSVedassfd *send*”), not to mention the man-hours lost while poor human pets try to shift their sleeping feline masters off their laptops. Now they’re going to take over the mobile phone too.
Absent-mindedly give your cat a stroke while going through your calendar and the next thing you know five tons of premium cat food has been mysteriously ordered from the Whiskas direct ordering service and your meeting with Larry Page has been replaced with “13:00-15:00 – Groom Tiddles”.
Hello,
I wrote a patent (pending) describing methods and systems for making online payments using an innovative GUI design. It is targeting touchscreen devices (iPhone, Kindle and so on…) It’s pure and simple.
I’m working on another startup and don’t have time to develop it into a business, the patent is up for sale to entrepreneurs or players in the payment/mobile industry.
If you’re interested, please touch base with me at etou AT laposte DOT net
Probably now it is the newness, but soon time already it will exist something better