Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | about this site The sentient office is coming (19 Jun 2003) Some products already capture the spirit of sentient computing. When the makers of mobile phones first put the mouthpiece on a flip-up cover, users had to open the handset and irritatingly press a button to answer a call. It did not take long for manufacturers to add a sensor so that opening the flip-up cover answered a call and closing the cover ended it. A small change, for sure, but one that made the flip-phone far easier to use. Article URL: http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1841108 Read 37 more articles from Economist sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: Underwater music player wins award This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy