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Short Text Messages In Mid-Air
bahree writes "The BBC is running an interesting story on how Nokia is making a mobile that lets you write short text messages in mid-air. The messages are written using a row of LEDs fitted on the rear cover of Nokia's forthcoming 3220 phone. A motion sensor in the phone makes the lights blink in a sequence that spells out letters when the handset is waved in the air."
I used to have toy from Mattel back around 1983 or so that worked on this same concept - it was called a LightStick or some such. It was a long black paddle with a row of leds on the front, and a keyboard on the back. You just typed in a message, and wave the stick wildly back and forth in the air.
As I recall the problem was, waving this thing around wildly was very taxing on the arms, and the message was sometimes unclear and difficult to read - especially after fatigue set it.
Hopefully Nokia thought about this, and has made it a little less straining to use.
"Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not these things."
writing messages to a DJ in a noisy club. I currently request songs by holding up my phone as close as possible, but that isn't always readable.
The Technonaut
How about a motion-sensor device that will enter text on your phone (i.e. into a SMS message) as you move the phone. Say making a "J" motion will enter in a J. Kinda like Palm's graffiti just using your hands.
If you wanted to communicate to someone in a discrete manner you would sms them or phone them. If you wanted to make an indiscrete communication that would get their attention you could shout to them (they are still within vision range and i doubt that you can read the little LED's at 100 metres), so what void does this feature fill?
I may not be the target market for this, so it could just be my not seeing how these things tend to take on a life of their own beyond the original use.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World" 1 John 4:14
Look, placing GUI interfaces on lots of stuff is OK if it streamlines your operation of the device, but the phone companies and even automobile manufacturers are using lousy GUI interfaces to perform simple tasks.
Maybe it's just the programmer in me, but there are many MANY device that I look at and think "wow, I could design such a better interface for that..". Even on my phone, there's a few tiny things I'd like to change (defaults, the dictionary for T9 input, placement of some menu items) but can't. A lot of things are trivially menu options, but probably left out because it would make menus too long and complicated looking.
It would be nice if these developers used open source, and let people modify firmware on their phones or other devices. But I'll just go back to my day dreaming now..
Speak before you think
I can see tons of personal injury lawsuits resulting from someone wacking the next person in the head while reading their SMS's, or even worse, stabbing someone in the eye with the antenna.
You have to admit that it's pretty clever. Especially being able to control the games using the same motion sensing technology. We've spent decades twisting and waving gamepads around in the air in fruitless efforts to produce that extra bit of movement in critical gaming moments - how about it actually working for a change! Why can't my console or PC do this?
~Someday, I hope to be an aspiring author.
This I actually saw a long time ago in a bar in London, '91 or '92... I was chatting away with some friends and I kept thinking Absolut, Absolut... that feeling like you just saw a sign for it somewhere. After a while of this subliminal pounding I notice a vertical row of bright red lights in a corner. Didn't think twice until I moved my head away from it and saw "Absolut" floating in mid air.
Essentially just moving your eyes around the room and going past these lights a person would get "Absolut" written in mid-air for them...
If I ever wanted a gift as much as anything, it was a row of lights like that! Many very useful purposes for an object like that come to mind... spelling out "Go into my bedroom and undress..."
Shouldn't something like this have some subliminal regulation?
BMW IDrive system is a great idea and works nearly flawlessly, but only once you've been using it for a few days. Once you're familiar with where all the settings are, you start to realize the benefits.
:)
A) Your posture can remain essentially the same: left hand on the wheel, right hand on the IDrive controller. Rather than having to lean forward or sideways to be able to reach a certain button, all you have to is flick your wrist.
B) You don't have to look all over the dash to adjust something. Looking away from the road towards the IDrive screen is only about a 15 degree eye movement, compared with the right-and-down head movement you need to look at controls on the dash.
C) The IDrive controller uses tactile feedback to indicate when you've reached the end of a menu, or when you've passed into a different set of options. Once you've been using the system for a while, this makes using it nearly subconscious because your muscle memory handles most of the work.
D) The system gives you much more control over minor options that aren't adjustable in most cars: for example, you can adjust how much heat from the heated seats goes to your back, and how much goes to your butt.
I think the IDrive system is the one of the best recent examples of true innovation from the auto industry. It took a lot of guts on BMW's part for them to switch to it, but I'm glad they did.
And their cars still handle like bats out of hell.
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I think that a lot of gui and interface problems have to do with patent and copyright infringement. So it would be nice if people used some form of open source in gui design. Too many design decisions are based on not wanting to infringe on other people's intellectual property. At least that's my two cents
I can't remember what the name of the movie was, but I was watching a spy movie where they had one of these equipped in a car as one of his gadgets. I remember being impressed by how feasable and useful it looked.
The taillights were LED based, with one of those bars across the entire back of the car for third brake light. It turned into a voice activated scrolling marquee when he spoke into a cb radio style microphone. This was used twice in the movie, once to communicate with the police behind him, and the other to make sarcastic remarks to the bad guys who were chasing him.
If you were to actually implement this, it would be pretty easy; the trickiest part would be the voice activation. Personally I'd like to be able to send a message to the guy behind me who's trying to push me to go faster, when I'm already 5mph over.
"steal me!" The phone has some nice features (XHTML browser for one), but all the LEDs seem to do is advertise to would-be theives that you've got an expensive phone.
Honestly though, those options don't hurt people. Those who know what they want will find them, and those who don't won't generally. (There will be some people who do all the time.) But as long as it's limited to things like interface, there isn't a problem, because it will not actually interfere with the operation of the phone as a phone.
It's not just the programmer in you, it's the "Hater of design so bad that it could have been pumped from a port-a-potty" in you
For example, take my Nokia phone. Please. The hardware is OK, but the UI is horrible. I lived in Japan for years, and my first cell phone there, in 1996, had a better user interface than any Nokia I've seen since (never saw one in Japan, the Japanese brands own the market lock, stock, and two smoking Pringle's cans, and it's not just protectionism; they're *a lot* better than the competition).
My wife got a Samsung, and while I don't think it's as good as the Japanese domestic phones either, it beats the crap out of my Nokia on every point. I know what my next cell phone will be.
Japan is not known at all for UI design in PC software, but when it comes to UI design in gadgets, Japan is without peer.
Reminds me of propeller clocks (also here, here, here...)
...or the similar mechanically scanned displays.
Spacewriter sells some very cool full-color displays. Their iBall 3D display is also sold at AudioVisualizers - check their site out for more animated demos.
There's also the Virtual Game System (Google cache) which was amazing; unfortunately the site is down so you'll have to settle for text and no pictures.
-- If you can read this, you are too close to my signature.
"Put a copy of the firmware in ROM... as soon as the button is pressed it reverts to that. Very simple. I can't think of a single reason not to do something like that."
:)
Maybe I can help. I can think of at least two or three reasons.
1. Reflashing the firmware from ROM is the first thing you do after you steal a phone. It removes any trace of the phones previous owner is gone. In some cases, including the IMEI.
2. If you leave a copy of the firmware on the phone, suddenly anyone who wants to hack with the firmware, it becomes a lot easier. A whole underground society exists of people who hack their phones. Where do they get the firmware? People who work at places like Motorola leak it to them. If phone companies started putting firmware on their phone, you'd have people releasing company design secrets at that exact second.
Hmm that only looks like two reasons. Nevertheless, I think I've proved my point
--
The last digit of pi is four.
You forgot the most important -- storing two copies of firmware means either a) more money spent on flash that is used so very infrequently or b) less memory for cutesy ringtones or another lame-ass game.
This isn't done in many mass market devices because the cost of extra Flash or a mask ROM is relatively large compared to other components. Larger companies are often ecstatic if they find they can shave off 1 cent from the Balance Of Materials because they're anticipating unit sales in 6 or 7 figure quantities. That 1 cent multiplies up into large chunks of cash. Adding extra ROM or Flash chips, with costs in the dollar range, is not acceptable. Factor in the development and testing cost for the exta software and things get even worse. So, however technically sound the idea might be, an economic argument often wins out.
A final consideration is that device copying is rife, particularly in the far East; some companies go to extraordinary measures to try to protect their software and hardware designs from being cloned. The more devices or device partitions you have, the more points of attack you potentially present for someone intending to break into the physical hardware and the software of the unit.
Ironically, the Microsoft Smartphone platform is very configuable. The menu system is identical to Win32 systems, i.e. folders and shortcut. It's definately a hackers phone, not for the faint-hearted.
Plus it can be legitimately application-unlocked unlike many DRM capable phones and the SDK is free (as in beer).
But all this could be solved by simply having a "reset button". Put a copy of the firmware in ROM... as soon as the button is pressed it reverts to that.
Covered in the "hidden" service menu on these phones. It automatically restores any parts of the registry or file system that become corrupt, so I've never seen it fail on me because of my screwing around.
Look at how popular ringers and backgrounds have become.
Another great feature here is ringtones are wav files (I just make my own in CoolEdit) and backgrounds are jpgs. The user-front end is completely skinable.
My favourite toy on it right now is Mapopolis, a vector based mapping app with GPS capabilities. I haven't gotten lost in ages...
But it's M$, so I'm probably wasting my time here...