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Motion-sensitive Handhelds?

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.

29 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Sure, but... by haystor · · Score: 5, Funny

    The major problem is having to drop it every time you want to click on something.

    --
    t
  2. great by Boromir+son+of+Faram · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just when I get used to people walking down the street apparently talking to themselves. Now I'm going to be dodging fists when they dial.

    --

    Boromir, son of Faramir, King of Gondor and Minas Tirith
  3. Lets see by HowlinMad · · Score: 3, Funny

    switch from portrait view to landscape simply by tilting the handset

    Would that happen to be a 90 degree tilt?

    1. Re:Lets see by swordboy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What I want to see is a marble/labyrinth game for cell phones. Wouldn't *that* be something?

      --

      Life is the leading cause of death in America.
  4. Not bad.. by Darken_Everseek · · Score: 2, Interesting

    At first I had visions of people not being able to hold a view they actually wanted; but since there's a button you have to press to access each of these features, I like the idea. Probably works based from an electronic gyroscope of some sort .. cool.

  5. 'Motion-sensitive Handhelds' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Oh, the joke potential with that term...

  6. Suddenly by Davak · · Score: 3, Funny

    All the porn companies are adopting this technology for their web pages.

    Move the phone up...
    Move the phone down...
    Move the phone up...

    Suddenly your cell has hair growing from it.

    Davak

  7. Tilt sensitive Mobile Phones? by SkArcher · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Now I need to program a game for one of these in the style of one of those old 'ball bearing maze' puzzles you used to get in christmas crackers when I was a kid.

    Damn you /.

    I wonder how accurate and sensitive the tile function is?

    --

    An infinite number of monkeys will eventually come up with the complete works of /.
    1. 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. NOOOoooo Daddy... by PSaltyDS · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wasn't hitting my sister in the head... I was trying to call mommy!

    Works as a shutter release for the phone-cam too, but you always seem to get blurry pictures... hmmm...

    I may not be funny, but at least I'm... well, not not funny...

    --
    Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced. - Geek's corollary to Clarke's law
  9. 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?

    --
    there are 3 kinds of people:
    * those who can count
    * those who can't
  10. I'll pass by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Combine tilting web navigation, with smart phones that know your buying habits (and credit card info).

    Drop it on the carpet. Pick it up and find out that you just ordered and paid for, a battleship anchor, express delivery to your house.

    1. Re:I'll pass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Combine tilting web navigation, with smart phones that know your buying habits (and credit card info).

      Drop it on the carpet. Pick it up and find out that you just ordered and paid for, a battleship anchor, express delivery to your house.


      What are your buying habits.

    2. Re:I'll pass by JediTrainer · · Score: 2, Funny

      Pick it up and find out that you just ordered and paid for, a battleship anchor, express delivery to your house.

      So you're the prick who outbid me on e-Bay!

      --

      You can accomplish anything you set your mind to. The impossible just takes a little longer.
  11. already have this on my Zaurus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I discovered that by dropping my Z from a height of about 6 feet onto concrete, I was able to turn off the power. Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to turn it back on again. :-(

  12. Heck, with my reception by boskone · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Fancy controlling your mobile phone just by moving it?"

    I have this feature now, it's called "poor coverage" and the way I hold the phone affects whether I can make calls or not.

  13. 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.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  14. 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
  15. 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?

    --
    I hate the fact that you people don't salute me
  16. 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.

  17. awesome gaming potential by donutz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Motion sensitive computing input devices of any kind make for some awesome gaming potential.

    In this case, you could have a wicked game of labyrinth running on your PDA!

  18. 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.'"
  19. Re:you mean like the compaq itsy ?? by DemonMucha · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I was going to say the same thing, I believe Compaq/HP even holds a patent on it already. I think they even intergrated it with some test versions of the iPaq...

  20. hmm... by Kadagan+AU · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A new smartphone from Finland lets users scroll and zoom simply by using their hands

    Seems that I can do that with my *old* phone... just use my hands to push the scroll button!!

    Seriously though, you have to push a button corresponding to the motion you're about to do if you want it to recognize the motion (assuming I understood the article). Now if you have to push the button anyway, why bother moving the phone? Just to look cool? I mean, you're already pushing a button, why not just make it the scroll of zoom button?

    --
    This space for rent, inquire within.
  21. Not good. by teamhasnoi · · Score: 3, Funny
    What if I'm Katherine Hepburn? Huh? What then?

    I'm looking at who I want to call, then suddenly I'm connected to some operator in Thailand. I try to hang up, but now I've ordered a pizza. I attempt to cancel the order, and great! I've just booked a flight to Squarenuts, Missouri.

    Combine this with pre-emptive ordering, and I am a bankrupt movie star. I might even lose my house on Golden Pond.

    I think not.

  22. Simulate Bigger Screen by Mignon · · Score: 4, Funny
    I have an idea for using one of these phones to simulate a much bigger screen. Use this virtual deskspace to create a grid of, say 640x480 cells, with the initial cell at the top left.

    Then, holding your phone at arms length, wave your arm from left to right. When you hit the 640th virtual cell, quickly move the phone back to the left and down one cell. Repeat until you get to the end of the bottom row, when you return to the top row. Oh, and do all that in about 1/60 second for a flicker-free experience.

    I won't even patent this, so it's in the public domain.

  23. Should be about as easy to use... by tbase · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...as one of those games where you try and get the ball through the maze and in the hole.

    "Honestly occifer, I'm not drunk, I was just dialing the FOP to make a donation"

    --

    666-607: 6th floor apartment of the beast
  24. Honey, what's that? by oliverk · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can see it now. You trip on the subway and your PDA clicks on the nameless popup and the entire screen is taken over by Asian Porn.

    Honey--really, I didn't MEAN to click on that!

    Maybe we need more INTENTIONAL forms of input...

    --
    ---- Please be nice in case my Slashdot karma ~= my real life karma.
  25. 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.