Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Cell Phone with Built-in Projector

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the almost-practical-now dept.

karvind writes "Siemens researchers have developed a cell phone featuring a built-in projector system. A laboratory model was presented at CeBIT 2005 in Hanover. The system makes it possible to project a complete keypad or display onto a surface. With a special pen, users can write on the virtual keypad and operate the phone's functions. Other projection keyboard concepts can be found here and here"

8 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Re:hard to type by zenneth · · Score: 3, Interesting

    All they'd need to do would be to incorporate some type of thin glove with specially-padded fingertips to get around the hard-surfaced keyboard.

    But imagine laying in bed and have your phone ring and project the Caller-ID info onto your wall or ceiling so you would/wouldn't have to get out of bed.

    That'd be sweet.

    --
    The Chronic *WHAT* les of Narnia!
  2. Wrong direction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If they are going to build a projector into a cell phone, then it needs to display the screen on the wall, not a keyboard on a desk. I've long wondered why no one has integrated a projector into a laptop.

  3. Re:hard to type by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I want a SELMA hologram for my portable electronics interaction.
    Holy crap, +5 obscure reference.

    That was a good show, too. Wonder what happened to it.
  4. The phone itself is badly designed. by AtariAmarok · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Like many cell phones, the phone itself is badly designed to make it difficult to do basic things like enter phone numbers. Something that should be a "no-brainer" like having a standard right-angle array of the phone numbers is lost on them. Why have the 7 key located way above the left key so you have to look at the keys in order to figure out where they are? (The Nokia N- Gage is one of the worst examples of this: it is like the intentionally went out of their way to make it useless as a phone).

    Maybe the projection system could make up for this by projecting a standard number button array so it can be used. However, it would be a lot simpler if they used a standard number array on the phone itself.

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  5. Tangible Tools by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Most of our motor skills require a tool to be really skillful. Because tools react to our actions, and our minds require feedback to interact with things. This projector requires a pen, which looks superfluous, but which will certainly help accuracy and counter the frustration of pushing fingers against an actually blank, flat, smoot surface like a tabletop. But it's kinda big, and has only limited gestures: press and stroke. How about a thin rubber sheet, maybe 0.1mmx10x10cm, with a textured pattern, that the phone projects onto? A video sensor next to the projector (with the phone standing upright, rather than that huge swivel projector) watches the fingertips, like existing projection keyboards. Our fingers will work the surface a lot more nimbly when it reacts. A later generation can cover the sheet with rubberized piezo actuators, or stacked MEMs, for a truly interactive surface. The sheet could be rolled up into the side of a hollow stylus used for more precise pointing when necessary. Make it cheap enough to replace several times a year, and the whole thing starts looking like a real tool, instead of a picture of a tool.

    As long as I'm writing SF, how about the MEMs sheet un/rolling itself from the stylus? And including sensors, rather than a video sensor? Or the phone with a fiberoptic jack for projecting the interface image through the sheet itself? Somebody gimme a budget!

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  6. Re:hard to type by hgavin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I tried out the Canesta projection keyboard at the Symbian expo in London two years ago. The keyboard was projected using a laser, and was perfectly visible in the artificial light of the exhibition hall. The keyboard generally worked well, and was linked bia Bluetooth to a Sony Ericsson P800.

    The real drawback of these devices in my opinion is the lack of tactile feedback - until the character appears on the screen you don't know whether you've hit the key correctly. It's fine for hunt-and-peck typing, but touch-typists have trouble with them.

  7. Re:hard to type by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Project onto a rubber mouse pad.

  8. Am I missing something here? by Rui+del-Negro · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you have to use a special pen... what's the point of having a keyboard? I mean, why doesn't it just do handwriting recognition? The whole point of having a keyboard is being able to type with all (or most of) your fingers. If you're limited to using the "special pen", it's slower than typing with your thumbs (assuming you have two of those).

    Unless they can make the virtual keyboard work reliably with people's fingers, I doubt this will be very successful.

    RMN
    ~~~