The rectangular, predominantly symmetrical nature of most smartphones means if you're not looking, you might find you're holding the handset the wrong way around when a call comes in. Google's most recently awarded patent may seek to end your orientation confusion by adding a microphone and speaker at both ends of the device. That way, when you pick it up to answer a call, it'll determine which way you're holding it and select the microphone and speaker accordingly. Then again, this is a patent filing, so it's just as likely to wind up lining the bottom of a Mountain View engineer's drawer.
Google's smartphone patent doesn't mind which end you talk into
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In this article: Accelerometer, Android, Auto-Rotation, Controlling microphones and speakers of a computing device, ControllingMicrophonesAndSpeakersOfAComputingDevice, Google, Google Patent, GooglePatent, Granted Patent, GrantedPatent, Microphone, Microphone Orientation, MicrophoneOrientation, Motorola, Orientation, Patent, Rotation, Smartphone, Speaker, Speaker Orientation, SpeakerOrientation, User Interface, UserInterface
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