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Is the Bar of Soap Tomorrow's Smarterphone?
Barence writes "Researchers at MIT have developed a gadget that knows whether you want to use it as a camera or smartphone, just by the way you're holding it. So, if you hold the device, dubbed the Bar of Soap, out in front of you like a camera it will automatically bring up an LCD viewfinder. However, if you then switch to holding it as you would a mobile phone, it will bring up a touchscreen keypad instead. The Bar of Soap utilises a three-axis accelerometer and 72 surface sensors to track the position of the user's fingers and its position."
I look forward to the day when I wont have to face the arduous task of pressing the camera button when I want to switch to camera mode. And I am sure I won't look like an idiot twisting and shaking my phone back and forth, trying to get the damn camera on (like with iPhone switching portrait/lansdcape mode) because the feature will work flawlessly every time. Sorry, I tend to be in a sarcastic mood early in the morning. Yes, I know it's 1pm.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
I can't wait for teen girls & college women to carry their "bar of soap" into the shower, and while washing accidently press the "take picture" and "send" buttons.
Of course most women do that anyway. They've created a whole new category called "mirror teens".
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
The Bar of Soap utilises a three-axis accelerometer and 72 surface sensors to track the position of the user's fingers and its position."
And what's the advantage over using a single "surface sensor" (i.e. a button)?
In what position do I need to hold it in order for it to know that I want it to vibrate instead of making noise when somebody calls?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
what if i want to take a picture of something in front of me, on my desk, while i am sitting down. i've actually done this a few times, so it's not too much to ask.
hopefully there will be an easy override button i can press?
sometimes gadgets try too hard to be "smart", and end up infuriating the end users.
Please god, no. I already curse my iPod Touch frequently enough when it decides how to rotate the screen for me. For example, ever try web surfing while lying down? What I wouldn't give for a "lock screen orientation" button.
No matter how smart this phone is, you still shouldn't drop it in the shower.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Talk about an utterly subjective and intuitive line of guesswork.
Some will be obvious 99% of the time, others it'll be random guesswork on the part of the device as it won't know what it's relationship is to the rest of your body and the world. Just imagine trying to take pictures from odd positions. (around the corner, from your purse so he doesn't notice, etc.)
It will absolutely need a manual override or there are going to be a lot of strange mistakes.
Why isn't this tagged "dontdropthesoap"?!
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
From the article:
However this method does have its downside. Because of the varying ways people hold devices, it's only accurate 70% of the time, though this figure hits 90% if the Bar of Soap is trained with a specific user.
So even if it's "trained" with me, it will exhibit the incorrect operation 10% of the time.
This device needs a fair bit of improvement before it's marketable.
Now what would be really interesting is if they added a mode that responded as such:
a. Phone rotated 90 degrees such that the lens is pointing toward the sky
b. Phone senses me taping it to my shoe
c. Phone takes snapshots every few seconds.
I'm an avid Upskir^H^H^H^H^H^H shoe-point-of-view sky photographer. It would really make my life easier.
If you want or need to take a picture/video discreetly? Now you're stuck holding it way out in front of you, giving away the fact that you're filming/taking photos?
I've snapped photos and video before by keeping the phone up against my ear like I was on the phone, but aiming the lens at the subject and tapping the button on the side of the phone. I know other people have done the same to film their local police using a taser on someone. If the cops know you're filming, they're likely to try to take your cell.
...pushing a button on the side of the phone to switch to camera mode?
Isn't this kind of a like a Rube Goldberg device?
I have a bad feeling about this...
Okay, so not epic fail, but a bit of a potential fail if they manage to come up with yet another phone which despite having a really cool feature where it can change modes just due to it's orientation.... it still takes a bloody eternity to switch modes.
Perhaps I'm the only one. Perhaps everybody else's phone can go from dial-a-pizza to 6-gigapixel with motion-stabilisation in 0.001 seconds but every handset I've tried has something between an annoying and an interminable wait before the thing actually starts functioning like something approximating a camera.
If I really cared about taking reasonable quality photos on the spur of the moment, I think I'd still carry a dedicated digital camera.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
I'm definitely foreseeing a problem when you hold the phone out in front of you and move it around to try and find reception. That's a very similar position to the one you would use for picture taking.
How am I going to take pictures of women's cleavage while pretending to text NOW?
If for some reason you want to use your phone or camera in positions or ways that might be confused for other uses? How would the phone work in zero-G? Nice idea, but I hope you get your patent fees back...
Will it show a picture of a brick on the display?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I already have an idea for a useful app for a phone with 72 surface sensors that can detect the position of the user's hand - detect the size of the hand and if considerably smaller than an average adult-sized hand, immediately lock all functionality.
My younger brother got a new touchscreen phone the other day and was complaining about how the camera button was in a horrible spot, and was hard to use without pressing other buttons. I picked it up and held it sideways like a camera and none of my fingers came close to touching any buttons, except for the camera button that was under my right index finger right where the shutter button should be.
Me: Seems fine to me.
Him: Why would anyone want to hold it like *that*?
I still can't convince him to to not hold it like you would when taking a picture with a flip-phone.
That would be incredibly useful.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
This will suck for people who like to take portrait-oriented photos more than landscape photos.
Also, last I checked, my mouth was not on my neck directly below either of my ears.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
but now it's a camera
I can see a problem if you are trying to get service for your phone, but every time you hold it up and away from your body to try to get better reception it goes into camera mode. Come on now, I can't be the only one that does that lol...
a phone that doesn't drop calls...or if it does try to reinstate the call automatically.
I'm all up for all these gadgets and gizmos, but I really want the phone part of my phone to get some priority.
If the phone is in my pocket automatically put it on vibrate. Or if it detects loud noise like a car radio change the ringer.
72 Touch sensors = 1 (or 2) light sensors by the ear-piece.
When the ear speaker receives insufficient light, it's a phone.
A front-mounted light sensor, mounted near the lens, perhaps, acts as control. If intensity doesn't match, phone, if yes, camera, screen comes on.
As a former user of the first-generation T-Mobile Sidekick, a mobile phone with dimensions extremely similar to a Dove bar (soap not icecream), I hope this concept is not adopted by phone manufacturers.
That thing was a joy to thumb-type on, but as a telephone it sucked donkey rocks.
or maybe to sense a grenade toss.
Take my Auto Loan, Please !
Yours In Communism,
Kilgore Trout
What if i want a phone without a camera?? What will it do if I hold it like a camera?
Dear mobile phone producers. Forget the camera thing. Build phones.
If you find a typo, you may keep it.
SO much more practical than, say, pushing a button.
On most phones, you can activate the camera with one button press. How, then, is it better to use "a three-axis accelerometer and 72 surface sensors"?
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
I refuse to buy a new watch, or a new cellphone or digital camera, until the day that a cheap one appears that is all three.
Having to carry yet another thing that can be easily lost is just an accident waiting to happen.
Dick Tracy had it right.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Sony cybershot. Pull the lense cover down, goes into camera mode, with a button wierd you would expect it. Web browsing screen orientation is changed only by user demand - press asterisk to switch. I'm posting this comment from it now. Best ever.
Quite a few that are in production or are set to be released utilize almost the exact same technology to reorient their screens and do a whole lot of other things. It doesn't take much to use that same accelerometers to do the exact same things that the article is talking about. The reason a lot of companies haven't gone quite as far as these researchers have is because enabling that by default is kind of a nuisance in practice. But it wouldn't be a bad option for some if they were used to it and wanted to minimize button/tapping/navigational interaction.
ZzZzz...
ring
ring
*yawn. [fumble for cell on nightstand.] "Hello?"
*snap snap snap
"What the...??" [pressing "send" by accident]
Now naked pics of my wife are all over the internets. Great.
My
Limekiller
I can't take pictures of my ... ehh.. FEET? I do love taking pictures of my feet and monitoring their GROWTH.
Seriously silly.
I'm holding out for one of these. According to a TV show in 1997, it will be(en) invented by next year. http://www.openthefuture.com/images/globallink-readius.jpg
See post above yours called best design ever
Until you've perfected mind reading, please stop assuming you know what I'm trying to do At the very least, please provide a "no second guessing" mode. Microsoft, this especially means you.
If I'm aiming the phone straight up in the air, can it tell if I've lowered the phone much closer to the ground? And that there is reduced light where I'm aiming? Just curious.
Although on the plus side, when you're busted, without touching anything you can bring the phone up as you would be normally talking and go "Look, it's in phone mode, don't know what you're talking about. Nice dress."
That's my experience as well: the iPhone accelerometer is useless and a nuisance.
Twister in the shower... Just don't DROP this phone in the shower... it might require mental AND physical gymnastics to use it properly...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Can you imagine "hey man, that's a cool phone" "yeah check out the touch screen!" *holds up phone* *Phone switches to camera mode* "Oh crap." *Next day* "Hey man, wanna take a picture of this cool rock?" *turns phone down 90Degrees* *phone switches to text mode* "Oh, great" Thanks, guys. This is exactly what I want to happen.
Warning, the above comment may contain sarcasm. Don't say I didn't warn you.
I guess that makes it useless to the working time-travelor, then.
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
If you hold it up against your head, it will turn into a regular ordinary bar soap, for all your cleaning needs.
Depends on if you need a ride or not. And exactly what kind of ride you need.
... will it be in whe I hold it down low, pointing up someone's skirt?
Have gnu, will travel.
To any manufacturer shipping such a phone, please also include a button to manually switch from camera mode to phone mode, so I can override the phone when it misinterprets my actions. Oh, and I also use it as a camera 5% of the time and a phone 95%. Please factor such logic into your algorithms.
Unless it's actually waterproof, which I doubt.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Why does the general populous feel the need to have a 14-in-1 device that can save your life, take family photos, keep you entertained, tell you how to get home from the place you work everyday, make sure your mom knows you didn't crash your car into a ditch on the side of the road when you don't call her the instant you pull into your driveway, give you directions for making supper, and, after you cycle through 5 layers of menus, call your best friend?
I don't get it. I'm all for cool new trinkets, but if you want a phone, buy a phone. The cameras are great for emergencies or cute moments, but even the best ones can't compete with a real camera.
So, what is my point? Since the camera isn't why you're going to buy the thing, why waste money on it? Get the free phone or one with a rebate from your carrier (they come with decent cameras now) and get a real camera. The "smart phone" aspect is just going to drive you insane with this one when it doesn't work, anyway.
This mad science is getting out of hand!
How drop-resistant are they?
I speak England very best
microshaft sidewinder freestyle pro game controller used the same technology eh? no 2000_xp-drivers though. looks sad all-alone in the drawer like that...kinda like this--> :-(
moved on to ubuntu :-)