But having 2 or more faces in focus (e.g. when showing some pics to your friends) could easily be a show-stopper then.

I really do like the initial idea. Thumb on proximity sensor and just zoom in and out with any finger you've got available. Very nice idea.

I think it shoukd be the other way round. If u bring the face forward it shoukd zoom out and vice versa

Well instead of the face we can use the closed fist which can act similarly...

mhm.... my suggestion on this:

basis for this all is just one finger on the proximity sensor:
(having the phone landscape)
(proximity sensor is free = phone acts as normal)
(phone has to be unlocked of course)

1. lean your phone over 30° to the left to:
- show previous pic (while in image-viewer)
- go back (while in browser)
- switch to previous desktop (when no app is opened)
- switch to previous song (anywhere?)
- switch to previous app (when multiple apps are opened)
- etc)

2. lean your phone over 30° to the right to:
(look at above - just the other way around ^^)

3. lean your phone over 30° to the top to:
- delete (or send or upload or...) (while in image-viewer)
- zoom out (while in browser)
- open chosen shortcut/website/filemanager/app-manager/... (while no app is opened)
- stop playback of song (anywhere?)
- switch to app/task-overview (when multiple apps are running and one is fullscreen)
- etc...

4. lean your phone over 30° to the bottom to:
- delete (or send or...) (while in image-viewer)
- zoom in (while in browser)
- open another chosen shortcut/website/filemanager/app-manager/... (while no app is opened)
- play/pause playback of song (anywhere?)
- switch to all of your installed apps for starting any of them (when multiple apps are running and one is fullscreen)
- etc

of course you can rotate something too or having any other actions predefined and ready to be chosen in the settings of this app

so this would my suggestion for combining the proximity sensor with the accelerometer

edit: enable/disable it via applet in the statusbar ^^

@sachin007
Again, think how awkward that'd look when riding the subway...

I'd still vote for pagesix1536's idea. Simply because it's somewhat habitual and for sure can be implemented system-wide, landscape & portrait. Even lefties could use it, though being a bit inhabitual in portrait mode ;-)

I more and more get the feeling that this thread is leading somewhere...

One thing i disliked about the phone from the beginning was 1 or2 "hardware-buttons" missing on the phone's display. With the proximity sensor at least we could get 1 ;-)

Inspired by this thread, I've started adding this functionality to Shortcutd. Holding the proximity sensor and sliding finger on the screen emulates the volume keys, resulting in zooming/volume change depending on the app. It's not ready yet and appears to be a bit glitchy with some apps, but hopefully it can be made to work well enough so it can be included in the next version.

Obviously it could be made to work much better in third party applications by forgetting the volume keys altogether, but I guess this is the only way to make it work with "any" app.

True, true. The initial idea is by far the simplest and most elegant.

Hey, take n900 in left hand upside down. Now you can easily control it with one hand. You can press on most places on the screen with big finger and you can easily cover and uncover sensor with the base of your big finger (i mean the part of big finger which is part of a palm).