Synaptics Inc. is the force behind Google phone's touch screen

The first of the so-called Google phones is controlled using a method that's finally gaining momentum in mobile computing: swiping a finger across the screen.

The touch sensors in T-Mobile's G1 phone, which hits the market Oct. 23, are made by Synaptics Inc., a little-known but influential Silicon Valley company co-founded in 1986 by a Caltech professor.