Cell phone manufacturers have already launched phones which can speak text, listen for and transcribe voice commands, and read written text through optical character recognition. So what's next?. Movement, perhaps.
The phone senses movement though a built-in accelerometer, a specialized device which senses speed and motion. A computer algorithm processes the information to recognize letters, numbers or commands. The phone can also be programmed to recognize command gestures. For example, shaking the phone twice ends a call or deletes an unwanted message.
Samsung has included several other features which showcase the technology, including "motion beat-box" music, which can be played by moving the phone in different directions to select instruments and control rhythms.
If the technology works as advertised, and users can adapt to it easily, it could mark a new solution to the problem of text entry on cell phones without keyboards. Or, like a computer mouse, the technology may prove more useful for simple navigation than for lengthy text entry.
Samsung also announced plans to use the motion-sensing feature in future phone models for a variety of purposes, including game playing, switching a phone display from portrait to landscape, and preventing motion blur when taking photographs.
Reviewed by : Michael Adler of MobileBurn
An upcoming CDMA model from Samsung, the SCH-S310, will include "3D movement recognition," a technology which lets the phone sense the speed and direction of its movement in space. This will let the user enter text by tracing letters or numbers in the air and select menu items by "pointing" the phone in a certain direction.
The phone senses movement though a built-in accelerometer, a specialized device which senses speed and motion. A computer algorithm processes the information to recognize letters, numbers or commands. The phone can also be programmed to recognize command gestures. For example, shaking the phone twice ends a call or deletes an unwanted message.
Samsung has included several other features which showcase the technology, including "motion beat-box" music, which can be played by moving the phone in different directions to select instruments and control rhythms.
If the technology works as advertised, and users can adapt to it easily, it could mark a new solution to the problem of text entry on cell phones without keyboards. Or, like a computer mouse, the technology may prove more useful for simple navigation than for lengthy text entry.
Samsung also announced plans to use the motion-sensing feature in future phone models for a variety of purposes, including game playing, switching a phone display from portrait to landscape, and preventing motion blur when taking photographs.
The SCH-S310 will also include a 1.3 megapixel camera, music on demand, GPS, and even a magnetic compass. The phone will be available in South Korea in March.
Reviewed by : Michael Adler of MobileBurn