Founder and CTO Tong Luo demonstrating the HandSCape mobile device case on an iPad. The protective case doubles as a touch surface that allows users to use their other fingers to navigate and control the device. “There’s no reason why functions on mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone should be limited to the thumbs,” Tong said. The company raised $305,000 on Kickstarter and will begin shipping products to users in April. Amy He / China Daily

Tong Luo likes to say that the hand-enabled mobile cases he has developed — called HandScape — help complete “80 percent of the remaining jobs left by Steve.”

That’s the motto of HandScape, which allows users front and backside touch control of iPads and iPhones beyond the use of just their thumbs. The case also doubles as a protective one.

Tong, who displayed his device at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, first played around with an iPad when it was launched in 2010 and said the device was heavy and his movements were clumsy.

“When I first had a chance to play with it at my friend’s party, my thumbs were too short and I had to flip my hand and use the other fingers to touch the buttons. On that day I played some tennis so my wrists hurt when I flipped my wrist. I was thinking, ‘Why do I need to use my clumsy thumbs to do this operation and leave all my other good fingers for the holding job?’” he said.

And that eventually inspired Tong to develop HandScape.

Founded in 2013, the company raised $200,000 with a successful Kickstarter campaign in September last year, exceeding their initial goal by about 200 percent. It also closed a round of funding for $2 million, and is expected to ship its first products out in April.

When on, a user can see his fingers against the backside of the case, and those fingers can press down and navigate the screen as they would on the mobile device’s main touchscreen.

The case can be turned on and off depending on the user’s needs and can be used with applications that HandScape has developed. The company eventually hopes that the case can be used with other applications, but for now users can use it to play games and to use maps.

“For most cellphones and tablets, it basically enables the users to operate using their thumbs or other fingers. Even on the bus, on subways, when you see people texting on their cellphones, they’re using one hand holding it, using other hand index finger to do the typing,” Tong said.

“When I think about it, it’s quite anti-human. In our daily jobs, you hardly ever use your thumbs to do the operation—you use your index fingers, your other nimble fingers to do the job, and the thumb is just for assistance and just holding or anchoring,” he said.

The case has a built-in circuit board — with the thickness of a credit card — and costs $109 and $129 depending on iPhone size, and $159 or $169 for iPads.

“Every year $35 billion is spent on mobile device cases. I’m very confident we’ll be able to take 10 percent of the high-end market for cases,” Tong said.

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com