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Galaxy S4 screenshots shows new eye-scrolling feature

6 March 2013 by
Samsung Galaxy S4 might be controlled with eye movements. A couple of screenshots from the device shows multiple settings for the new Smart screen functionality

Samsung Galaxy S4 Smart Scroll eye scrolling

To navigate some applications using the eyes only could be that killer feature that would lift the Galaxy S4 above the crowd. A new set of screen shots shows that the Galaxy S4 could be the fist smartphone that could be navigated using eye movements. We do not know if these screenshots are from the Galaxy S4, but previously rumours indicate that such functionality will be one of the new things for the Galaxy S4.

The screenshot provided by sammobile.com shows a couple of menus called Smart screen and smart scroll. The description following each settings tell us that this is a feature which can be switched on or off. It seems like there is a fixed list of supported apps for this feature. Such as Internet (smart scroll web pages), Chrome (smart scroll Chrome web pages), The body of email messages (Smart scroll the body of email messages), Gmail and more. Other settings are: adjustable acceleration, the scrolling speed and visual feedback display.

What do you think? Is this a useful feature, or just a gimmick?

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randomuser11 years, 1 month ago
Nice gimmick
Tsepz_GP11 years, 1 month ago
Sounds great glad to see there's at least one phone maker who is trying new and creative things that MAY one day become an important part of a smartphone even if it all starts off as a cool gimmick
I remember the days where GPS in a phone was seen as a gimmick by fanboys of a brand that hadn't implemented it in their phones at the time, here we are years later and GPS is now a crucial part of the smartphone.
Year after year Samsung smartphones get heavier and heavier on Motion/Gesture Control. One of my favorites which is very useful in the GS3 and Note2 is Smart Alert where the phone will vibrate if you have a notification you haven't read when you pick up the phone from a surface or take it out your pocket and then Direct Call, where you simply put the phone to your ear and it will auto dial the number/contact you're on, comes in very handy at the weirdest of times
EDIT:
Smart pause:
The second new option, Smart pause, is simpler but very useful – it will pause video playback when you look away from the device. This will do for watching videos what Smart stay did for reading.

Sounds very good, I can just see all these features being seriously useful over time the more Samsung continue to improve and refine them along with more and more powerful optics and SoCs.
[ This Message was edited by: Tsepz_GP on 2013-03-06 11:36 ]

[ This Message was edited by: laffen on 2013-03-06 11:42 ]
Bonovox11 years, 1 month ago
Why?? It'll only make you more tired and looking up and down the screen surely just using the touch screen is more accurate. Imo a not needed gimmick
bavlondon211 years, 1 month ago
It's a bit of a gimmick but it's very innovative and shows Samsung are trying to push the boundries. If it works well it could be a killer feature.
Why?? It'll only make you more tired and looking up and down the screen surely just using the touch screen is more accurate. Imo a not needed gimmick
You could argue it's quicker to enter the first few chars of a name and select directly rather than flick to scroll... but flick to scroll is a more pleasing experience. Id say this falls into the same category.
[ This Message was edited by: bavlondon2 on 2013-03-06 13:27 ]
Tsepz_GP11 years, 1 month ago
+1 bavlondon2
Dups!11 years, 1 month ago
I'd rather wait and see how these Smart features work in practice.
I am waiting to see what Samsung does with this phone. The SIII really made a rather good impression on me even though I am not a fan of their Touchwiz interface.
This will certainly be the phone to beat in the Android world.
[ This Message was edited by: Dups! on 2013-03-06 15:36 ]
Ranjith11 years, 1 month ago
I like these small nice features by Samsung..but do they really work?i mean the ones in S3?dont have an idea,really.
djin11 years, 1 month ago
Yes they do work on s3. Its really nice to see what they are doing. Even if it is not useful at all times, its atleast something that differentiates them and it can come handy at times. I like the smart stay feature on s3 while the rest were not as usefult to me. But still nothing to really complain. More options gives more flexibility to use it. I wish other manufacturers realised the importance of software too to differentiate them selves. Apart from the UI there is no difference between most of the top phones which you can buy right now.
Tsepz_GP11 years, 1 month ago

On 2013-03-06 16:43:08, Ranjith wrote:
I like these small nice features by Samsung..but do they really work?i mean the ones in S3?dont have an idea,really.

They do work, sometimes EXTREMELY well and other times not at all.
As I type this on my GS3 I have Smart Rotation On, what this does is it uses the Front facing camera to detect the position of your face relative to what the Accelerometer senses. So, if I tilt my phone to the right together with my face, it then tries to decide whether or not to rotate the UI, even with bad lighting it works, its when it is completely dark where it really struggles.
I took this screenshot at full right tilt with my face also tilted so the UI stayed vertical, you can tell Smart Rotation is doing work by that Eye next to the alarm clock
Visit forum to view images
Ranjith11 years, 1 month ago
That is nice to hear.The split window is something i really like about the GALAXY's.
BTW there is an App called Iseeyou in the store that does a part of what the Galaxy has.The screen doesn't switch off as long as you are looking at it.Works well on my XS
jplacson11 years, 1 month ago
Eye tracking is a great idea. It's not meant to replace the touchscreen, but augment it. Much like voice recognition. The only problem I see with this feature is the added battery drain.
It's sad that a phone that lasts over 6 hours (online, 3G/4G, surfing) is considered having a "decent battery life". Instead of making phones thinner, why not give them larger batteries so that surfing/tethering times can reach at LEAST 15 hours?
Bonovox11 years, 1 month ago
Yes. Sometimes I think Sammy tries to make a phone do too much. I never need any features like that although am not slagging Samsung for it I just would never see the point of it

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