Samsung’s Joystick Phone

By James Quintana Pearce - Wed 18 Jul 2007 12:30 PM PST

Samsung has filed a patent which involves using the bottom half of a flip-phone as a joystick. “It may sound simple, but it actually requires a very complex mechanism consisting of multiple magnets and Hall effect integrated circuits to capture 3D movements of a joystick and turn them into the game control signals” reports Into Mobile. It’s a great sounding idea, but even if it worked I can see the two halves of the phone being torn asunder. It’s good that they’re thinking of ways to improve usability, though. The patent is here.