[Sigia-l] From multi-touch to multi-face?

[Will Parker]

Apple has filed a set of patents ( http://www.macsimumnews.com/ 
index.php/archive/ 
apple_patents_relate_to_disk_drive_media_access_systems_for_portable_com 
put/ ) that indicate they are thinking about ways of maximizing space  
on portable devices by directing the user to flip the device over to  
perform some task using the opposite face of the device.

In the patents shown, Apple describes an icon to signify the action  
being requested of the user, and describes a laptop having a 'pop- 
top' optical drive on the underside. It looks like the task sequence  
goes something like this:

- User initiates disk-eject sequence.
		- OS prepares removable volume for eject
		- OS displays 'flip me' symbol.
- User flips laptop over
		- OS senses change in device orientation using built-in motion sensor
		- OS enables optical drive 'Eject' button
- User presses eject button & removes optical media
- User closes optical drive cover
- User flips laptop to normal orientation
		- OS senses orientation change & disables optical drive Eject button

I'm sure there are additional details in the patents, but what I want  
to know is this:

Have any of you worked on designs that required users to switch from  
one face of a physical device to another?

Any comments on the process of designing 'multi-surface' user  
interfaces?

Leave aside this particular embodiment for the moment and think how  
you would approach designing a mobile computing device that could  
sense its orientation and interact with the user in different ways  
depending on that orientation.

As an example, shortly after Apple started including motion sensors  
in its laptops, some enterprising fella came up with a hack that  
would change the display orientation of the laptop's built-in screen  
from landscape to portrait, so that you could hold the laptop as if  
it were a book. (A four and a half pound book that costs well over  
$2000 with a warranty that doesn't cover Acts Of Gravity).

Answers containing the character string 'Wii' will be accepted, but  
will be disinfected before use. Controllers aren't mobile computing  
devices.

- Will
Will Parker
wparker at ChannelingDesign.com

"The only people who value your specialist knowledge are the ones who  
already have it." - William Tozier