Thumbs tired? Use your mobile phone as a pen to write an SMS

A very cool idea has come out of Duke University in North Carolina. With the right phone and an experimental piece of software called PhonePoint Pen, you could write a message in the air with your phone, which can then be translated into text and sent via SMS or email!

Picked up from Textually.org, this story really highlights some of the more interesting uses your phone can be put to. The exciting thing about this is that all of the necessary technology is already in place. Using the accelerometers built into many smartphones, electrical and computer engineers at Duke University can use a phone to write messages or draw simple diagrams.

The software is still in early stages - it can’t handle cursive text yet, so each letter has to be written individually. Further developments could include using your phone to scribble a short message onto a picture you’ve just taken.

From the story:

“By holding the phone like a pen, you can write short messages or draw simple diagrams in the air,” said Sandip Agrawal, an electrical and computer engineering student at Duke University in North Carolina.

“We’re trying to get past the whole idea of typing on a keyboard or using a stylus to enter information into devices,” said Romit Roy Choudhury, an electrical and computer engineer at Duke who acted as Agrawal’s mentor.

Quotes from Live Science

What we think?

It’s been a great week for cool idea like this. The Nokia Gestures blog made me happy, and this story has made me even more so. We’ve all been at THAT bus stop - you know, where everyone is busily huddled over their phones, thumbs flashing. How much more entertaining would that scene be if people were wildly waving their phones about in the air?