At the CES this year, Motorola introduced the Rokr E8, which features a novel type of user interface. The front of the phone is fully covered by a glass panel, behind which there are two displays. One serves as a conventional screen, and the other one lies beneath the lower, touch-sensitive surface of the phone. Thus the text labels and icons of the touch-sensitive surface - which has tactile orientation points on them - can be changed. If you put the phone into music player mode, the keypad disappears, and you see the icons for controlling the music player. Effectively, Motorola has made a product on which they can change the button labels on a whim; a phone with just soft keys, but without the downside of soft keys (see also phonescoop definition) that the text labels are on the screen and not on the button itself.

Click the movie below to see the Rokr E8 in action.

Though not as extensively as in the Rokr, the SonyEricsson W850 walkman phone also has a UI that changes appearance if you switch to another 'mode' of use: if you switch to walkman mode, certain keys on the front panel are lit. Also the Philips HDD6330 GoGear mp3 player featured a sort of adaptable or 'feed forward' user interface. This device has icons in the touchpad that could be lit to indicate that the function was available. So if the 'play' button was not available, it was not lit.

These two products differ from the Rokr E8 in the sense that the E8 is even more flexible in what icons to present. A step further down the line from the Rokr we find the smart phones that are fully covered with a touch screen, such as the iPhone. However, the Rokr, with its tactile elements (little knobs) and a separation between the control and display area seems an interesting new addition to the spectrum.

(Via: Small Surfaces)