Smaller Hands Need Smarter Designs for Smart Phones

No more thumb cramps or having to use your other fingers to press buttons!

Smart Phone
Image: Patentschope

As smart phones get smarter, they're also getting bigger. The iPhone 5's screen was a whole inch taller than its predecessor, the 4S, and some phones have screens as large as 6.3 inches diagonally. For fitting information, bigger is better, but for fitting some people's hands, the bigger screens are proving to be a challenge.

In a recently filed patent, Samsung is trying to accommodate those with smaller hands. The company recently filed for a patent that takes into account your thumb's natural arc. Lee Mathews at Geek.com explains:

Samsung’s on-screen keyboard doesn’t just move closer to one edge of the screen, it also angles itself to place the keys in your thumb’s sweet spot. The same goes for things like video playback controls, and menu items could also be repositioned to fit the arc.

No more thumb cramps or having to use your other fingers to press buttons!

More from Smithsonian.com:

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