Palm may be brave enough to take on Apple full force in the multitouch department, but Korean handset maker Pantech has decided to take an entirely different route. Beginning with IM-S410K Sky Wind, coming in middle of this month, all Pantech mobile phones will use the Emotion Engine, a user interface developed by Fantalog Interactive. The Emotion Engine requires that you blow into the phone’s microphone to perform what would be otherwise multitouch inputs, and utilizes the built-in camera to recognize motion in place of an accelerometer.
Not only will this help Pantech avoid any costly patent disputes, but the Emotion Engine uses features ubuiqitous in cellular phones these days and removes the accelerometer, lowering the manufacturing costs.
From an end user perspective, the Emotion Engine sounds complicated to me. But I’ll have to see it in action before I can make a judgement. And just so you know, Pantech claims that the Sky Wind’s microphone can differentiate between a blow from your mouth and natural wind. It wouldn’t be so good if your phone went haywire every time it’s windy outside.
via cnet asia
