By: Ben Robinson, IntoMobile Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 3:53 AM
Apologies for the shocking pun in the title – just for a microsecond, I was feeling a bit funny…
Synaptics announced today that its ClearPad™ solution is driving the interactive touchscreen in NTT DOCOMO’s new Sharp SH906i clamshell handset. The SH906i uses Synaptics’ ClearPad technology to enable finger-input character recognition capabilities for Japanese character entry. The combination of the SH906i character recognition software and Synaptics ClearPad solution improves usability for regions with more complex alphabets. Capacitive sensing-enabled text entry allows the user to access and control any number of applications and menus on a handheld device in an efficient and intuitive manner — it is fast, easy to use, and accurate without a stylus. Synaptics’ ClearPad sensors recognize a variety of gesture input for an effortless user interface. OEMs can customize their device user interfaces using Synaptics’ growing gesture library, which includes gestures such as flick and pinch. The SH906i, for example, uses flick to flip though channels and adjust volume on its mobile-television application.
Hmm, well nothing revolutionary in terms of touch control, save for perhaps the ability to deliver Japanese character entry – something I imagine that would have taken some coding to enable!
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career
when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has
now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the
next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas!
He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently
became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years
when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to
'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make
your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device)
isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question
of why you continue to use it...
His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and
infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the
occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience
in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with
regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.