Multiple functionality is a trend that defines many gadgets developed in the recent years, functions of previously separate gadgets like cameras, phones and music players coming together into single devices. Even though this makes it easier for users on the one hand, as they don't have to carry a large number of devices on them, juggling all those functions in one product with multiple personality is not always simple, many big-selling gadgets confronting themselves with the issue of confusing interfaces.

However, that's about to be a thing of the past, as researchers at MIT have developed a prototype that is able to predict what functions its user wants from the way it is manipulated. "The ideal device would be a generic block, like a bar of soap, that knew the user's intent and could change its interface accordingly," said Brandon Taylor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

 

Although a basic version of this function is already incorporated into a few portable devices, such as smartphones that automatically dim the screen when they sense they have been swung against a person's ear during a call, Taylor and his colleague, Michael Bove, have decided to take the idea even further.

 

They have created a bar of soap-like device with an LCD screen front and rear. It contains a three-axis accelerometer to measure its motion in 3D, and 72 sensors across its surface to track the position of the user's fingers. By testing the gadget, the team spotted patterns in the way the different users held the gadget, and their grip gave clues about how they expected the device to perform.

 

Those results were used to program the soap bar to guess what was expected of it and respond appropriately by presenting an interface tailored for that function – when held as a camera, the LCD screens display a camera mode. However, in order to obtain the best results, the device has to be trained to a specific person. Taylor will present his work at the CHI 2009 conference this April.

 

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