Virtual keypad comes to mobiles

Virtual keypad comes to mobiles

From housing plain old keypad that is still in vogue in most of the mobile phone models to the later versions such as QWERTY keypads, mobile phones have come a long way. Several efforts at simplifying the usage of these gadgets have yielded notable results. Among the recent entrants in the handset market are the devices equipped with touch-screen displays.

In keeping with its tradition of bringing innovative devices to the market, Pantech Group of South Korea has brought out a dual-LCD sliding phone that incorporates an OLED touch-sensitive screen. Instead of a conventional keypad, the new handset, called 'IM-R200', has an LCD keypad. As soon as the device is slid up, the virtual keypad is displayed on the LCD panel. This keypad is touch-sensitive. Users can dial the numbers and also view contacts with a mere touch of a finger.

According to the Pantech Group, the 'IM-R200' handset is different from the other touch-screen models available in the market, because of its innovative touch-screen and sliding features. The company says that the combination of touch-screen keypad and the sliding feature would make the usage of touch-sensitive keypad extremely easy and hopes that it would become the major input technology in the future.

Because it offers separate and virtual interfaces for every function, the touch keypad simplifies the usage of multimedia applications. For instance, a list of songs will be displayed on the LCD panel when the phone is used as a music player. Similarly, the camera functions will be displayed on the LCD panel when the gadget is used as a camera.

When pressed, the capacitive touch-screen of the new handset vibrates, thereby giving the user a feel of real buttons. The 'IM-R200' handset is equipped with a dual camera, comprising a 2 megapixel camera and a VGA camera. The face recognition function in the dual camera can recognise the shape of a face and adjust it on its own so that the user can get the best picture while clicking. The handset also includes a 2,60,000-colour, 2-inch QVGA LCD for the main display and a 2,60,000-colour 1.6-inch OLED LCD for the keypad. Besides, the 'IM-R200' includes 128 polyphonic ringtones.