Call us cynical, but we just can't see this one working out it. A team of researchers from Umeå University in Sweden are reportedly looking to sync up events on a soccer field to
vibrations in a cellphone, essentially enabling you to keep track of the action without having to focus your eyes / ears on the handset. The proposed system could send vibrations to the phone that would act as a way of communicating possession, ball placement and (of course) gooooooooaaallllls, but obviously a few obstacles still stand in the way. For starters, buzzing your mobile through an entire tilt would do a number on the battery life, and even though you could "feel" the action, it would still require a great deal of attention. In all honesty, we'd say this whole system probably has more promise off the pitch than on, but then again, we call football soccer, so what do we know?
[Via
UnwiredView]
posted Nov 1st 2008 7:16AM
In all honesty, no-one would use that at all.
Here in the UK (I presume the same in the US) you can load a small webpage listing scores and then select a match for slightly more detail. These sites are typically very very small and so use almost no data allowance :)
Not to mention having to learn morse code to use it... and its not like a phone being on vibrate is exactly quiet, my phone vibrates pretty loudly in class
That would finally have a chance to get women interested in footie.
Sweden is teh shit. When is usa gonna learn from sweden
rofl wtf that come from? Sweden calls it soccer too? hmm so does Australia & U.S.A.. looks like the name 'Soccer' is becoming more popular than football now.
In Soviet Russia, Phone vibration on YOU!
@Dave. Nah, we call it Fotboll (pretty close to fotball), not soccer. Socker means sugar in swedish, but thats a totaly different story :P
This will be really useful...
...as a sex toy.
Sitting at a coffee table with my date....
GHHHAHAHHAHAHAHAAOAOOOOOLLLL...
date runs for her life....
Sorry for ruining your relationship. :(
"The proposed system could send vibrations to the phone that would act as a way of communicating possession, ball placement and (of course) gooooooooaaallllls"
And that's why I love engadget.
Ball placement?
So your phone will be rotating in your pocket?
Left, right, forward, back.
"Is that a phone in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"
"Hmm?"
"Oh, wait. Nevermind. It disappeared. I mean... yeah"
anyone know how to spell useless???
c-u-b-f-a-n-7-8-6
Anything else I can do for you?
LOL.
Football... you mean FOOTBALL!
Fooball.
Spelling it a different way doesn't make it any more fun to watch.
More fun than American football though, at least it doesn't stop every 10 seconds.
Yeah, instead it never even starts.
Well, this is the first thing I thought of:
http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF036-Gopher_Girlfriend.gif
@pimp
I have to hand it to you that was good.
actually@ Sam Stone
Nothing personnal cubfan.
I just saw the opportunity, and exploited it.
But thank you, I'm here all week.
"we just can't see this one working out it"
I can't see it working out it either.
Between not being able to tell when you have a call (try to hear your ringer through that crowd), draining battery life, and the fact that you really don't need the additional stimulus in the middle of a shouting crowd, I can't decide which reason to say this is pointless.
Interesting if it could also be used for prOn
A quick way to get your Girlfriend intersted in football, If you know what i mean :P
Yes, yes I do :P
I wonder if they envision using new ways to make phones vibrate in more complex way instead of the old tiny motor when they conceptualize this, although I don't wonder enough to visit their site.
In principle you could use the same system as speakers (woofers) to make vibrations, perhaps with a small weight attached, then you could use various waveforms to modulate the effect more directly when compared to a motor with an unbalanced weight.
If that fails they can always nVision it :D
(nVision: www.nvidia.com/page/nvision.html)
Yet another reason to get excited for high scoring games.