Gestures

As the operating systems for mobile devices become more powerful, they also become more vulnerable to viruses, trojan horses and data bots. The risks are not just limited to what software your phone is running.  Last week I read about a new security issue for mobile devices - software which can use video footage of you to see what you type or dial from up to 60m away.

This got me thinking about how we use our digital devices, and how we symbolise them using hand gestures.

As a child, my family and many people around indicated 'call me' by spinning the index finger - dialing an old rotary phone in the air. 

Later this was indicated by lifting one hand to your ear, thumb and little finger extended and other fingers folded over - mimicking the shape of the receiver (see bottom left on the image on the right). Even after most of us have moved to using mobile phones and VOIP like Skype, this gesture still means 'call me'.

In practical terms, we've moved from fingers (rotary dial) to thumbs (small cell phones, texting) and are now moving back to fingers again (virtual keyboards).

So is the fingers and thumbs 'call me' on its way out? Will the open finger swipe used on ipads and smartphones become the new gesture, or will security issues lead us to adopt something more guarded - like the crabbed hand we use when entering our PIN at an ATM?