Hmm - well the technique that Han uses isn't appropriate for a device as small at the phone. (basically, his technique features a camera looking at the display surface from underneath - meaning that it requires a substantial amount of throw underneath, which isn't available in a mobile phone). Also, this technique wasn't invented by Han - he's just the first one who has made a really nice, convincing demo of it. http://www.cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirsense/
That said - he and his students had a lot of neat ideas for multi-finger applications, so Apple may have been in touch with him for some brainstorming.. -Dave M.
Kyle Klipowicz wrote:
On 1/12/07, Malte Steiner steiner@block4.com wrote:
I wonder if they hired Jeff Han for doing the multitouchscreen although it is obviously not cameradriven...
My guess is that Jeff Han did have something to do w/ development. Look at the demo animations and it shows two fingers moving outward to zoom into a photo: this is exactly the method Han used to zoom in on a desktop of photos in his own multi-touchscreen demo.
I am still not sold on this thing either. It's seems more like a concept phone. My REAL hope lies that all the other phone companies and manufacturers will learn that people crave innovation, simplicity, and something that 'just works' for data swapping, especially address books, email, SMS, and voice mail.
I have Sprint right now, and they're pretty horrible for a lot of these reasons. My phone (LG PM325) was touted as having Bluetooth, but it can't communicate with my PowerBook worth a damn. It has text messaging where you have to sign in to a separate "sprint vision" service, a process which takes > 2 mins, just to view an SMS message. To connect to my computer and transfer an address book? Good luck! You need an expensive proprietary connector and some software that feels like it's in Alpha testing and also must be bought separately. Any software must be purchased: no FLOSS allowed.
Basically, phones right now need to become more standardized, and open to development, rather than being the tin-can platforms for after-market jollies that the companies are pushing them to be. Hopefully Apple will scare the bejeezus out of the other manufacturers into providing a sensible and working product. It sure worked like that against Blockbuster Video when Netflix hit the scene!
~Kyle