Pointless Cell Phone Gadgets
 

Link : http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,58227,00.html

As you can see on the picture, the newest addition to stupid cell phone features is a mid air Text message display.
now you can project your messages in the air for everyone to read ...
now seriously ... why would anyone want to use that ?
I feel we are working our way into a world of non verbal communication... I see people sending text messages to people on the other side of the bar ... is it so hard to get up, walk over there and ask the question in person ?
are we being pampered with gadgets that have no real use ?

Besides the complete inutility of this feature ... I don't really understand how it works.
As far as i know, when you want to make a light projection visible and readable, you need some kind of surface to 'break' the light on. how can mid air be any kind of screen ?
I have heard of holographic projection, but I don't think this is done with mere leds... info on this will be appreciated.

It uses light trails I think... you wave it through the air and it looks like it's in the air.

Pointless cell phone gadgets, eh? Don't ALL cell phone gadgets fall in that category?

A camera on your phone is a gadget too, and that can be quite useful at times i think

I've seen this kind of thing before -- if it's what I'm thinking of it uses several LEDs controlled by a computer that flashes the message like one of those moving marquees you find in lobbys.
Except that instead of a big grid of LEDs, it just uses a row or two but flashes in the same way.

When you wave it through the air, your persistance of vision lets you see a message almost like as if it were one of those marquees.