Shake To Delete...

from the shake-to-delete dept

Wed, Jan 12th 2005 1:38pm — Mike Masnick

One of the big challenges of mobile devices is how to figure out what the best input mechanism will be. For the most part, we've standardized on tiny buttons -- in either the keypad or keyboard format, sometimes with the help of predictive software. Some devices use touchscreens, handwriting recognition and voice recognition, but that tends to less popular or useful (depending on circumstances) for many people. Well, now Samsung is testing out another method: motion sensing. If you move the phone through the air in the shape of a "3" the phone will call the third number in your address book. And, for all you Etch-A-Sketch fans out there, if you want to delete an unwanted SMS message, you just shake the device. Of course, you have to wonder just how many mistakes this system will make, or how many times it will accidentally call someone based on the way you walk.

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Beck, 12 Jan 2005 @ 9:47pm

No Subject Given
Sounds like Firefox mouse gestures.
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Phoenix, 13 Jan 2005 @ 1:53am

mistakes
There is an easy enough way to prevent accidental gestures - a Push-To-Gesture button that would activate the motion sensing mode. This could be a side-button or even "any two adjacent keys pressed simultaneously". While any button is prone to being pressed accidentally, the combined probability of this _and_ a valid gesture is negligible.
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