Get this: Sony has just announced a sat-nav that can react to finger gestures. Instead of navigating through menus or tapping stuff on its touchscreen, the NV-U51 gives drivers a 'Gesture Command' feature. This lets you draw a line or shape with your finger, which the system interprets as directions to your destination.
Apparently it'll also understand handwritten commands like "get me home" or "find the nearest petrol station", but let's hope these can be scaled down to just "home" and "gas" -- we can't imagine anyone wanting to write whole sentences while hurtling down the M1 in the driving rain.
Depending on how it's implemented this could either be the best thing ever, or the cause of many a crash. On one hand it'll let you use your 'I'm annoyed at other drivers finger' for more constructive purposes, and allow you to beat carjackers to death with its massive cradle, but lets face it -- this could easily turn out to be a waste of time.
Specs-wise, the NV-U51 has a fairly petite 89mm (3.5-inch) screen, uses the SiRFstarIII GPS chipset, has a six-hour battery life, 512MB of memory, plus one month's free updates and subscription to a speed camera location service.
It'll be available by December for an as yet undisclosed fee. -RR
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