Video: The Squeezable Synaptics Fuse Phone is Back, Not So Easy to Use

Of all the concept devices we saw back at CES, one of the wackier ones was the Synaptics Fuse, a phone that you can control  by squeezing the sides or running your finger across a touchpad on the backside.  The idea is to make it possible to use the phone with one hand. At the time, we thought the idea was compelling, but we didn’t get a good– no pun intended– feel for it, since there was no practical user interface; just some onscreen bubbles that percolated as we squeezed the phone.

At Mobile World Congress, though, Synaptics showed off a final version with an interface and apps. When I got hands-on today, my test was to see how easily I could access apps like Facebook by squeezing the phone or using the trackpad (the phone has a capacitive touchscreen but to use it would have been cheating).

It’s important to note that this phone, a collaboration between Synaptics, Texas Instruments, Alloy, TAT, and Immersion, the haptics company, is proof-of-concept, and will not come to market in this form. Rather, it’s meant as a demonstration for OEMs, which may or may not choose to adopt these technologies in their future phones. If my hands-on impressions are telling, though, Syanptics and its partners need to iron out some kinks before a phone like this can be useful.

First, for the uninitiated, a recap of how the Fuse works: it has four grip sensors on each side, along with capacitive touch sensors. When you squeeze the phone, you activate the accelerometer, at which point you can tilt the phone to scroll through the menu of apps. While these icons are rolling by, you’ll feel the sensation of vibrating  marbles passing underneath your palm (that’s haptics for you). Depending on how steeply you tilt the phone, the apps could fly by too quickly for you to tap on the one you want. You can also shake the phone to switch home screens.

Again, the phone also has a touchpad on the backside. The purpose is to be able to use the one with one hand, but not getting smudges on your screen is a nice bonus. In my brief hands-on, I found the touchpad to be too jumpy. Even when my demonstrator, who’s had more hands-on time than I have, used it, she had trouble landing on the right app. We both often selected the wrong one by mistake. I don’t think that’s a reflection on either of us; I think the touchpad is just too sensitive. I do like that when you hover over an app, it glows and you’ll see previews, such as an unread Facebook request.

What’s annoying is that once you select the wrong app (or if ever you want to navigate backward, really) you have to tap a back icon on the upper right hand corner of the display. This breaks the magic of the Fuse, forcing you to briefly hold it with two hands.

If I would have Synaptics improve two things before it begins, in earnest, to persuade handset makers to implement this technology, I would have them make navigation on the touchpad more precise, and find another way to navigate backward, whether that means adding a button on the right side of the phone (where a rightie’s thumb would be) or programming a gesture, such as shaking the phone, that would translate to backward navigation.