On Tuesday 01 February 2005 02:02 pm, Stefan Trethan wrote:
> On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 12:27:03 -0500, Roy J. Tellason
>
> <rtellason@...> wrote:
> > I remember well reading an article in Popular Electronics, back in the
> > 1960s some time, where the point was made that with the trend in
> > "miniaturization" that was started even back then, the ultimate limit
> > wasn't going to be in the circuitry, but rather in the bits that the
> > operator had to interact with-- the controls and such. And while those
> > have gotten smaller than they used to be as well, there is a limit!
> > Bigger knobs and switches are easier to operate anyway!
>
> Hehe...
> A teacher of mine used to say they will soon have to transplant the ear
> closer to the mouth, looking at the mobile phones. Well, he was wrong,
> they simply used a much bigger airgap between mouth and phone.
We have a cell phone in the family now, and I use it very occasionally, but
I really ∗hate∗ the damn thing. It's uncomfortable to hold, and it's way
too easy to hit some button or other that you weren't intending to hit
because it's so darn small and everything is so close together, not to
mention buttons being on the sides where you grip it, etc.
> I have more than once heared people complain about the size of knobs on
> phones, remote controls, etc.....
> especially when they get older..
That's part of it (and I'm pretty sure I'm older than you are by some
nontrivial amount), but it's also fact no matter what the age. I have some
knobs in a box here that are close to 1-1/2" in diameter, with nicely
knurled edges around the outside. Seems to me it would make it very easy to
manipulate a control. Comparing that to these ones that are about 1 cm (!)
or so in diameter, I don't know how they expect people to operate stuff as
reliably, or with as fine a degree of control. Simple physics...