Okay, you know the drill by now: just because it's in a patent doesn't mean it's happening anytime soon, if ever. With that said, we'd love to see what Nokia had in mind when they concocted this one. As Unwired View recently unearthed, the Finnish phone maker has drawn up a design doc / patent application for comfortable, stretchable material that fits over your skin and is used for device interaction. Gestures and stretches are computed and signaled into nearby computers, phones, or interestingly enough "near-eye displays" -- sounds like we're getting into a bit of virtual / augmented reality territory here -- and they are also tailored to provide feedback via vibration. Again, don't hold your breath on seeing this come to fruition any point in the near (or even long) future, but still, we know what you're thinking: Nokia's gonna have to think of a ton of kooky color descriptions to accentuate any future lineup of input wristbands / fingerbands.

[Via Pocket-lint]

We're all for closing the gap between our desktop and mobile WPMs, but this might be a step in the wrong... direction (keep reading to understand why that was a miserable, unforgivable pun). HTC has filed for a patent that would have your phone determine which character you meant to type by analyzing its current tilt at the time you press a key, the idea being that a single key could be responsible for entering as many as five different letters and numbers. It seems like that'd make entering a text more like a game of Labarynth than an actually enjoyable (or efficient) process, but hey, we guess some people are really good with their wrists.

[Via pocketnow.com and wmpoweruser.com]

Yep, it's a mockup, but it's a darn good one. Or we think it is, at least -- we don't speak enough (any) Chinese to really know for sure.

[Via Slashphone]

Predictive text and alternative keypad arrangements (some bizarre) ease the painstaking procedure of hammering out the occasional email or note on the old mobile, but at the end of the day, nothing beats good, old-fashioned QWERTY (or Das Keyboard, if that's how you roll) for text entry. Brando's new $56 Mini Bluetooth Keyboard takes the old, tried-and-true formula of the foldable keyboard and scales it down a smidge, giving users a device that they can realistically carry pretty much everywhere they're taking their phone. Usability is an open question -- those keys do look mighty small -- but we're figuring a crappy keyboard is better than none at the end of the day.

Calgary-based Zi Corporation has announced an updated version of its eZiText predictive text input system that they say is the most advanced predictive text solution for China to date, making it even easier for users to break China's questionable texting laws. Zi's new system offers full phrase-level input for both phonetic and stroke modes and promises new levels of error toleration, as well as Cangjie support for users in Hong Kong and Taiwan. More details on how well all this actually works should start coming out when the system is unveiled at CommunicAsia in Singapore next week.

We're a little confused, since yesterday the word was that Samsung had teamed up with Iljin Display for packing a projector into their phones, but we guess they need to have their bases covered. Samsung has just been granted a patent they submitted in 2004 for a virtual input interface, a bit similar to that virtual keyboard from iTech. It involves a phone-based projector, an "electronic pen," a "position detector" and some handwriting recognition stuff. Yeah, we know, real technical-like, but it sounds like yet another vain attempt to create a better way to input text and other info into a mobile phone. Can't fault them for trying, but let's hope the mind-reading efforts are well under way.

[Via Unwired View]