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Posted by Niti Bhan | 5 Feb 2007
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Comments (22)
A patent has been filed for the design of a mobile phone with the keypad positioned above the screen - considered more ergonomic for texting - expect these to be released in Asia any day now.
The new design repositions the keypad above the screen and ensures that most of the handset rests in the palm of the hand for improved support and control.
As well as the improved grip, the thumb rests in a comfortable position directly above the buttons of the keypad. The improved angle for the thumb makes it unnecessary to shift the mobile phone around in the hand while typing text.
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Ah, but this is no new idea - check out Serene Mobile by Bang & Olufsen and see for yourself! www.bang-olufsen.com/page.asp?id=54
That's interesting but I tried flipping my phone around to see what it's like... my lower thumb area covers to much of the screen. Love the blog BTW.
Bang & Olufsen have already done this.
this "upside down mobile" fits much better for any onehand interaction to the mobile phone. a convienient simple ergonomic concept. but not new! in 2003 the concept was discussed at the multimodal interaction course at the university of wuppertal, germany.
Damn... I should have patented this myself months ago when I sketched my first concepts on this...
Damn... I should have patented this myself months ago when I sketched my first concepts on this... in fact I after some more thoughts I came to the conclusiion that a clamshell design with its keypad in the traditional position of the scren would be the best combination
Some might consider this an awkward design initially, but like all things, it will grow on the user over time.
It may take some getting used to, but I think I would like the buttons like this more than the traditional positioning.
A startup named Wildseed shipped a linux based phone in 2004 with the keypad above the screen. It was manufactured by Curitel. The phone also had other novel features such as replaceable plastic skins with an embedded smartcard chip able to update features on the phone. Wildseed was bought by AOL in 2005. See:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS7002110505.html
Bang & Olufsen already have this. It's called the Serene Mobile.
http://www.bang-olufsen.com/page.asp?id=208
Like this one? http://www.bang-olufsen.com/page.asp?id=54
Wow. I've been thinking that the iPod was built upside down since the first time I picked one up. It makes sense with a phone to (but is that patentable???)
Bang & Olufson have already brought out an upside down phone. A few years ago actually. It opens up so that the screen is below they keys. They too think it is more ergonomic. Unfortunately they decided to put a massive price tag on it.
Here is the link to see the Bang & Olufsen phone.
http://www.mobilegazette.com/bang-and-olufsen-serene-051007.htm
Its been out for years.
finally! I've thought about this for years. great job!
lol
B&O Serene is more that a year in the market!!! THe phone has lay out as pictured so it comes to me that the rights allready belongs to Samsung / Bangand Olufsen.
This has already been done by B&0 and Samsung with the Serene phone
Duh. What you mean to say is, he filed a patent APPLICATION. Applications don't get granted if there's prior art the examiner can find (and google will show).
Yes, maybe this patent application won’t be granted – but – please give up the ‘B&O did it before’ whining. C’mon… there are a lot of things that have been done before – actually, I’m saying EVERYTHING has been done before.
The point is, a lot of these ideas don’t reach the poor end-user due to market mafia, high price tags or simply nobody pushing it through. If it’s so that many designers thought of it before – why didn’t we bring it further than some one-offs?
I am not praising Harrison’s patent application but complements for creating a bit more awareness on our thumb breaking technology – hope to see some more friendly phones soon.
This is new? Blah, I remember seeing concepts just like this and B&O at early '90's. And now someone patented this?
LMAO! THAT'S THE STUPIDEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN! All the phone is doing is flipping the itself. I have cell phone designs myself but I don't know where I can produce a prototype.