Touch screens have particular appeal in portable devices because virtual buttons and other controls appear on screen only when required.

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The ultimate solution to difficult-to-use touch-screen infotainment and navigation systems could be technology that renders jabbing virtual buttons on a screen unnecessary.

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Up above the screen is a 2MP front-facing camera -- again, a nice touch for a lower-end handset -- and below you'll find virtual navigation buttons.

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This has been used by many researchers worldwide to create BCI-based applications that allow users to spell a word, identify images, select buttons in a virtual environment and more recently, even play in an orchestra or send a Twitter message.

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It's also going to have to make sure that more than two buttons are operational, moving ahead -- even as the industry has moved toward virtual everything, consumers are still accustomed to having the physical buttons on their devices work.

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If you experience this problem, I suggest you refrain from ever using the visual pager, and instead simply click on the numbered buttons to switch from one virtual desktop to another.

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With a virtual 6 x 9 inch color VGA display, a small joy stick and mouse buttons operable by the index finger when using the phone during a conversation the StarTac phone provided the ability to viewed shared subject matter, photos or documents while talking, 15 years ago.

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That 0.1 numbering gives a good indication of just how light the visible feature set might be, though -- other than an existing update to substitute the virtual menu button for a long-press of the home key, the interface changes are mostly limited to dedicated buttons for switching browser tabs and between different cameras.

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