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Samsung Launches 3D Movement Recognition Phone
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thu Jan 13, 2005 05:53 AM
from the shake-that-phone dept.
from the shake-that-phone dept.
Shuttertalk reports that Samsung have launched the world's first phone equipped with a continuous 3D movement sensor. Movement sensors in mobile phones to date have been limited to slope calculations and applied to some games and bio-related features. The potential is there to do away with the need for complex keypads on mobile phones, MP3 players, digital cameras and other handheld products. Many functions will be controlled by movement instead of buttons.
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I can see that already (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I can see that already (Score:4, Funny)
*down*
*up*
*down*
*up*
*down*
(Calling my girlfriend)
*up*
*down*
*up*
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Parent
Sorry I poked your eye out.... (Score:3, Funny)
No tactile feedback (Score:4, Interesting)
You can use your optical mouse without it touching the tabletop too, but it isn't at all a reasonable way to operate it.
Re:No tactile feedback (Score:2, Interesting)
agreed (Score:3, Insightful)
i like the idea of a pen phone where you dial a number by writing it down though - good for SMS messages, too...
Re:agreed (Score:2)
I went to the trouble to learn Graffiti (tm I presume) for my PalmPilot, such that I would even write it on paper if I made notes for myself (nerd!!)
It was still quicker to pop up the virtual qwerty and tap in the chars with that.
Not exactly (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Not exactly (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe I'm not used to hovering a mouse 6 inches above the desk because it's a totally pointless thing to do. What would you use the third dimension for? What's the benefit of the additional effort compared to letting it sit on a surface? And if depth/height does something other than being a pointless gimmick, what about whe
Re:No tactile feedback (Score:2)
Tech Support Calls? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Tech Support Calls? (Score:2, Funny)
This brings old memories from the time when I was something of a mix between consultant and support technician. I got the worst of both worlds, but learned a few tricks how to end calls after some odd noises had occured. I came up with so many tricks and used them so frequently so I kept track of which idiot had been hung up using which method. (Ok, so customer_0643 I've already hung up using the "bringing a HDD demagnetizer close to the cell phone"-method, so I guess I just do the "gradual
I don't get this... (Score:5, Insightful)
From what I can tell, the only purpose of this is for games. And we all know how successful they have been combining phones with game systems.
Move on
Games? (Score:2)
Remember all that time we spent as kids playing with plastic boxes and moving BBs aound the maze? I spent hours doing that! Bring this to my phone/handheld, please! I need another way to waste time!
Re:Games? (Score:2)
Re:Games? (Score:2)
Second, I have never used the EyeToy but what I'm looking for is something portable. I want to be able to pull out my [device] and, using only one hand (see, nothing up my sleeve!), play the equivilent of Marble blaster. Nothing fancy or overly complicated. I don't want to play Quake 3, just little things to pass the time at the bus stop or on the train. The frustrations from having the train stop or start would just be part of
Re:Games? (Score:3, Informative)
The problem is... (Score:3, Insightful)
Clearly, they are jumping the gun. What about people on bumpy trains, busses, etc? Granted, it might be an easier means of input for people walking or standing, but for people in cars, trains, etc, etc, It won't work, and clearly won't "do away with" a standard "complex" input keypad.
Though, it is kind of cool to see components like accelerometers finding their way into everything. With modern mobile phones, maybe they'll be programmable for use as a bluetooth wireless "air mouse"? One would only hope the spec would be at least open to mainstream programmers.
Gyromouse (Score:3, Interesting)
I saw the Philips version of this gyromouse once for the cheap price of 15 dollars and didn't even consider it.
Who wants to keep his hand in the air all the time, apart from the presentation every now and then ?
Every heard of RSI ?
The only nice thing I can think for it is some throwing game (darts
Probably not a very good idea
Hard to use (Score:3, Insightful)
Imagine having to write an SMS by hand in the air, there would be a much greater strain on your muscles, it can't be done in a small space, and it is SLOW.
I mean does anyone here like the idea of going back to writing communications by hand? Or for that matter, shaking the input device to do something that can be done by moving your thumb 3cm?
Great, away from hands-free (Score:2)
Re:Great, away from hands-free (Score:3, Insightful)
Wrong number.. (Score:3, Funny)
My phone's autolock doesn't always work so I don't really want to phone australia by mistake cause I just ran up a flight of stairs!
Oh dear, could be expensive (Score:2, Funny)
User: Puts his meat away, and turns phone recognition off.
Is it just me... (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't think it's that dumb (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I don't think it's that dumb (Score:2)
You always know a technology is doomed to failure when somebody suggests that their latest gimmik "could be useful for handicapped people". Really it's just another way of saying "really neat but no use to anybody at all".
On the other hand, those who start out by actually talking to handicapped people and finding out what it is that would make their life easier - they're the ones who come up with the useful inventions for handicapped people. Sadly, their produce tend not to
Some potential problems (Score:4, Interesting)
Two technical problems with this that I see.
Accelerometers have accumulation errors that always render them inaccurate. For true accuracy you need an external point of reference.
Consider, your phone senses that it accerates 5 m/s/s for 2 seconds, it can compute its current velocity no problem.
Now in stopping it, sensor error causes it to think it's accerlated -4.9999 m/s/s for 2 seconds. It's stopped, but it thinks it has a nonzero velocity. Not a big deal yet, but over time these errors accumulate, and after a day or two your phone thinks it's cruising along at 500mph. Perhaps a constant decay term on the stored velocity can force the system to tend to zero over the long term.
But a second and bigger issue is that of frame of reference. For many of the applications described here, I don't care how fast my phone is moving with respect to the earth, I care how fast it is moving with respect to me. So if I get in a car in stop and go traffic, how does the phone discriminate that motion from motion I do with my hands? Or what if I'm just walking along trying to edit my phone book with gesture motions and someone steps in front of me and I stop short? bye bye Cindy, guess we won't be going out tonight after all.
Maybe very clever software design can mitigate this problem of discriminating intended from unintended motion, but it's a difficult problem.
Re:Some potential problems (Score:2, Insightful)
See the big picture (Score:3, Funny)
Use-case scenarios! (Score:3, Funny)
User: Hey, look at this!
* User turns around to show friend
User: Bugger. Just a sec.
2.
Executive 1: What if the user is trying to walk and use the phone at the same time? It is, after all, a mobile phone.
Executive 2: Oh yeah, you're right, it's a load of crap isn't it?
Of course, you can't expect the executives to think of problems with their ideas, because that would imply that they were fallible.
Quantum Leap (Score:2)
Better start keeping a look out for people around you suddenly behaving weirdly for a day or so...
Good idea? (Score:2)
And how does it know that it's YOUR finger? What happens if you have your phone out and someone starts pointing at it excitedly. Your phone could go bonkers and call random numbers in Moscow!
Ob meme (Score:2)
Re:Ob meme (Score:2)
Software to adjust hardware possible? (Score:2, Interesting)
Would it be possible for the phone's software to adjust the sensitivity of the hardware? Or just interpret it different? As in, would it be possible that, when first used, the telephone would ask you how much 'strength' or acceleration is needed for the activation of this feature? Doesn't seem to difficult to me, and would solve some of the more obvious problems, IMHO.
Not that I would have ANY use for this.
PS. I
Re:Software to adjust hardware possible? (Score:2)
*WHAM!!11!!* "Hello?"
Oh. Yay. (Score:2)
This is mouse-gestures where the "cursor" path is comprised of your finger/hand through the air in front of the phone. Maybe I'm jaded, but this doesn't seem all that great. Or new. Or innovative.
It seems to me that it's just an edge-detection algorithm hooked up to a CCD, driving a back-end gesture engine.
Map scrolling (Score:2, Insightful)
One application I immediatly think of is navigation of maps. Just move the screen over your virtual map instead of slowly scrolling around with softbuttons, or whatever conventional method there might be on your current phone.
Looking like you're a crazy mofo... (Score:2)
Consider the public health implications!
Somatic components... (Score:2, Insightful)
Forget to siwtch it off? (Score:2)
By the time you come back you've dialed 5 people in Australia, sent 9 obscene SMSs to every person in your address book, lost 17 games of Tetris and taken 92 full colour pictures of your pocket fluff - all while playing your complete Britney Spears MP3 collection. And the battery's gone flat.
Cool!
Not the first! (Score:2)
"Cell phones"??? (Score:2, Funny)
Ah, the next user interface in its infancy (Score:2)
karma.. (Score:2, Funny)
sincerely,
[Zorro]
Be here now. (Score:2)
Crazy? (Score:3, Funny)
So now the crazy guy on the subway waving his arms around and talking to himself, is only just trying out his new phone?
Re:Only if (Score:2)
You'll just have to buy one of those novelty telephone that's shaped like a banana or a fizzy drinks can.
Or you could always just hold one hand to your ear, wave the other hand around and speak to yourself. Given the compact size of mobile phones these days, nobody will know that you're not actually talking to another person.
Re:Firefox (Score:2)