Fw: BlindNews: Technology: can you feel me now?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Leon Gilbert" <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Blind News Mailing List" <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2005 10:35 PM
Subject: BlindNews: Technology: can you feel me now?


> The Feature.com (Online)
> Tuesday, February 01, 2005
>
> Technology: can you feel me now?
>
> By Carlo Longino
>
> A few motion-sensitive mobile phones that let users control them and play
games by moving them around have been announced in Asia. How long before
people are making Graffiti movements in the air to compose SMS?
>
> Vodafone KK this week announced a 2G handset from Sharp that reponds to
movement, designed primarily for games, but also letting users establish
motion-based shortcuts to control certain functions, following announcements
of similar products earlier in the month from South Korea's Samsung and
Pantech & Curitel. It's a little hard to see motion-sensing technology have
much of an impact on user-interface design in the short term, but it could
make for some interesting games.
>
> Vodafone says it has a golf game that requires uses to hold the phone like
a club, as well as a shoot-em-up where users must hold the handset like a
gun, and Pantech & Curitel's got a fishing game where, yes, the user holds
the phone like a fishing rod. None of them sound particularly enthralling
once you get past the initial wow factor, but it does open up some
interesting possibilities, even for simple puzzle games, and the mind
boggles with potential games. It's not hard to envision Jedi wannabes having
virtual laser-sword battles. Vodafone says it will also release a Java API
so developers can use the function in their games, which should deliver some
interesting applications.
>
> But there are potential UI improvements as well, though they're likely to
be much simpler than spelling words out in an aerial alphabet. Scrolling
would seem a simple place to start. Alongside other interface improvements
and new feedback mechanisms like haptics, it doesn't seem like it will be
long before buttons, and graphics will be supplanted as mainstays of mobile
handset UI.
>
> The technology could also help open up mobility to users that have
difficulty with button-based interfaces, such as blind users, and it's
likely interface improvements for other users will arise from such
development. Releasing APIs and making it easy for developers to utilize the
functionality, like Vodafone has done, is crucial, though. Because the smart
money says the coolest and most valuable use of it won't come from a device
manufacturer or operator, but rather from some creative tinkering.
>
>
> http://www.thefeature.com/article?articleid=101395
>
>
>
>
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