Rumors were rife about Facebook’s alleged development of a mobile phone, but now, it’s Mozilla’s turn. OK, that’s a bit misleading, but this Mozilla-endorsed concept might be what a phone will look like if the company behind Firefox were to go into the mobile game.
Designed by Billy May as part of Mozilla Labs’ concept series, the Seabird phone is an idea for what the company calls an ‘open web concept phone’.
Seabird is an “experiment in how users might interact with their mobile content as devices and technology advances”, wrote Mozilla Labs director Pascal Finette in a blog post; and it does look like a gadget from the future.
A few possibilities in user interaction are proposed by Seabird, the most notable of which is the use of motion capture and projectors—like this infrared touchpad and virtual QWERTY keyboard for instance.
And the phone can double up as a full-blown computer too. Attached to a dock, Seabird can project a desktop image on one end and a keyboard on the other, making mobile computing in the future a much more tangible experience.
The point of this exercise is, according to Finette, to address the “lagging ability to efficiently input information” despite all the mobile CPUs, connectivity and development platforms approximate desktops.
Overview
The Mozilla Seabird, part of the Mozilla Labs’ Concept Series, is an experiment in how users might interact with their mobile content as devices and technology advances. Drawing on insights culled from the Mozilla community through the project’s blog, a focus quickly developed around frustrating physical interactions. While mobile CPUs, connectivity and development platforms begin approaching that of desktops, the lagging ability to efficiently input information has grown ever more pronounced.
Interaction
The Seabird, then, introduces a few possibilities into how user interaction might evolve with the advancing motion capture and projector driven innovation in the market. First out, the Seabird imagines how a multiple use dongle might augment the crowded gestural interface with greater precision and direct manipulation of content in 3D space.
Pico Projector
With mobile phone companies such as Samsung, LG and Motorola moving towards display applications for projectors, the technology remains open for expanding user interaction and input at the same time. The Seabird, on just a flat surface, enables netbook-quality interaction by working with the projector’s angular distortion to deliver interface, rather than content. With the benefit of a dock, each projector works independently and delivers laptop levels of efficiency.
Design
The form development took its cues from various aerodynamic, avian and decidedly feminine forms. Its erect posture intends a sense of poise while its supine conformity to the hand reconciles that with the user’s desire for digital control. The curvature of the back also serves a functional role in elevating the projector lens elements when lying flat.
Seabird is a community-driven exploration and does not mean that Mozilla has plans to produce an OS or hardware at the moment. Find out more about Mozilla Firefox for Mobile here.
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