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Motion-sensitive Handhelds?

Posted by michael on from the shaken-not-stirred dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Fancy controlling your mobile phone just by moving it? This article on ZDNet describes a new smartphone that is motion sensitive, so users can zoom into a Web page, scroll round a document or switch from portrait view to landscape simply by tilting the handset." The company website has a little more information.

8 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Itsy bitsy Itsy had it first by lophophore · · Score: 2, Informative

    Hmmm.. This is news? Didn't this feature first appear in the DEC Itsy? About 5 years ago?

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  2. Nintendo beat you to it by yerricde · · Score: 3, Informative

    Kirby's Tilt and Tumble already does this, using a motion sensor in the cart to control Kirby's motion. It's compatible with Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance but not GBA SP or GameCube GB Player.

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    Will I retire or break 10K?
  3. Old palms made this easy by msheppard · · Score: 3, Informative

    The BOSPDAUG (Boston PDA User's Group) has been putting accelermeters in palms for a while now. There was a brief project to put two of them in to get full motion... and then invent a new form of entering text with hand motions.

    The best part was the name: "Physical Graffiti"

    M@

    --
    Krispy Cream is people
  4. Cool stuff by rtstyk · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is really nice. I'm glad to see someone thinking out there. The zoom in animation on the company website gives really good idea of the potential to this thing.

    I do agree though with a comment about looking silly while doing that but then again, we did get used to people apparently talking to themselves so why not this too?

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  5. Background by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    FYI:

    Myorigo isn't just 'some company'. It's part of the same concern (Microcell) that made Sony-Ericssons' latest multimedia mobilephones.

  6. You should have linked by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Informative

    To the original project. I have some samples of the latest model 2G and 10G accelerators from Analog Devices, the ADXL202JE and ADXL210JE respectively. They are in a smaller package now, which means they should fit in there even better, but I haven't yet got the surface mount caps that I need to implement the hack inside my Palm Pro with 2MB upgrade. Still, it's on my list.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  7. Re:Tilt sensitive Mobile Phones? by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Informative

    someone beat you to it years ago..

    here

    and here's the game ...

    Done this with my Palm pilot for over 5 years now... Sheesh, nice to see companies inventing things that students did back in the 90's...

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  8. tried it out by tengwar · · Score: 2, Informative
    I've played with one of these for a couple of minutes. It was a prototype, so it didn't have a full software load, but I tried everything that's referred to in the article. The screen is a little larger than that of a P800, but is flush with the surface rather than recessed, and seems to be of higher resolution. I was using a web browser: the effect is that you have a full-sized virtual screen (perhaps laptop sized) and you're moving a letterbox around the virtual screen by tilting the device. The response is crisp and fast, so that this works very well indeed - vastly better than using cursor keys.

    Rotating the device to go to portrait or landscape also works very cleanly, and it does landscape and portrait in two directions so you can pick it up without turning it to a favoured direction.

    I didn't experiment much with the on-screen buttons, but as mentioned in the article, there's a slight vibration every time a button is pressed which does help. I'd like to compare this to a single "click" type movement for ease of use.

    Overall, a very tasty device.