Sensors

Thu Nov 30 19:57:42 CET 2006

I read the thread about a light sensor and think it's really a good
idea for several reasons, not the least of which are that photodiodes
are both simple to interface to and cheap, so the price/performance
tradeoff here if even one or two reallly good applications for it 
are found (and several ideas have been presented) is really good.
Thinking about other similar inputs that might also be good, I came
up with:
 * Temperature sensor - It might be able to figure out if it was in
 your pocket vs. in your hand vs. sitting on the desk. Again though,
 this is such a simple and cheap thing to add that it could, I think,
 be included just on the off chance someone will come up with a great
 use for it.
 * Motion sensor - lots of potential uses: shake your phone to rapidly
 to get to the main menu. Tilt scrolling, and application switching
 by tapping the sides of the phone (ala the 'Smackbook Pro' hack at
 http://blog.medallia.com/2006/05/smacbook_pro.html). Or maybe it should
 scream when you drop it to make sure you know you've dropped it so you
 don't leave it behind.
 * Consumer-level IR - too late for v1 probably, but maybe v2 ? - useful
 not only for docking/interfacing with printers, etc, but also for
 turning your phone into the ultimate TV remote :) The Agenda handheld
 had this feature and I've heard of people who are using the little thing
 for nothing *but* this - they've replaced their pile of remotes with a
 (now fairly dated) ~100ドル linux palmtop that never loses its IR settings.
 * some number of plain old LEDs - useful for message-waiting
 indicators (for voicemail, SMS, email, and IM) for example, without
 having to power up the display. Bonus points for multi-color LEDs.
Oh, and I was glad to hear there will be vibrate-mode hardware, but what
about speakerphone? 
And is the touch-screen a multitouch type? or single? I've gotten
quite used to the 'point with one finger, scroll with two' features on
my Macbook Pro.
PS: Add my vote for bluetooth.
 --pj