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."

Comments

I had that toy...

[soren42]

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.

This would be great for...

[BodyCount07]

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.

Re:This would be great for...

[patniemeyer]

So, I thought that was the rationale for why a D.J. is more than just some poser replacing a CD player... that they somehow responded to the crowd.

If you don't want input from the jackasses in the crowd then what are you doing up there? Wouldn't you do a better job mixing up your stuff if you did it in a sound room and recorded it?

Pat

Re:Innovation?

[gregmac]

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..

This has been done before (but not on a phone)

[drewhearle]

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.

Re:Innovation?

[SinaSa]

"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 :)