Line Phone concept uses extra-clever gestures thanks to its touch-sensitive rim

Judging by some of the newly announced phones, you might get the idea that we’re living in the future. But every once in a while, a concept of a phone comes along that makes it very clear that it’s not the future yet.

The Line Phone, which won the 2010 Furong Cup in ‘Digital Product and Service Design Competition’ in China, is one such concept…

The Line Phone is a full touch phone in the extreme – the front is a touchscreen edge to edge. Also, the defining feature of the concept is the touch sensitive rim, which plays a key role in controlling the user interface.

Watch this awesome video to get a better idea of what I’m talking about:

This rim serves a double purpose – it has a dynamic backlight, which is used as an indicator, but it’s also used for gestures. From simple scrolling to more complex gestures like changing the volume, skipping songs, image rotation and even going back to edit a text before it has been sent. All based on where and how you touch the rim and the currently active app.

The touchscreen also boasts a variety of multitouch gestures – who needs physical buttons when you have a well thought-out touch UI, right?

Anyway, it’s a great concept though there are some things I’m not quite certain about (the whole front face of the phone is a touchscreen, so where’s the earpiece?). Not that it matters – avantgard concepts like this rarely see the light of day as an actual product.

The Synaptic Fuse concept has a similar touch-enabled rim, have a look at that too. It even has pressure-sensitive sides that react to a squeeze as well.

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