Last posts on mobile phones

Smart Phone Suggests Things to Do

2007-11-18T23:10:00+01:00

researchers at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) have developed a mobile application, called Magitti, that uses a combination of cues - including the time of day, a person's location, her past behaviors, and even her text messages - to infer her interests. It then shows a helpful list of suggestions, including concerts, movies, bookstores, and restaurants

http://www.news.com/2300-1039_3-6210534-1.html

Serenata: Bang & Olufsen New Music Phone

2007-10-01T22:47:26+02:00

Via Textually.org

a Bang & Olufsen's music phone, called Serenata.

"The phone can store up to 1,000 MP3 tracks in its 4GB, plus 25MB of memory, and can handle AAC and WMA audio tracks too. The phone's high resolution also enables it to display album artwork, B&O says."

As with any Bang & Olufsen product, style is the watchword here. Inhouse designer David Lewis said his inspiration came from the smooth pebbles he used to see on seaside walks as a child. The result is a smooth, horseshoe-shaped phone with a clickwheel at the top. This is paired with a 'sensi-touch' 2.4-inch colour screen below."

Link

Cellphone for the Blind

2007-07-26T19:19:32+02:00

Via Textually.org (Gizmodo)

"a cellphone concept design by Peter Lau enables blind users to easily dial numbers and make calls. It doesn't rely on Braille, but instead has differently angled keys that users can learn to recognize".

Motorola signs on with Microvision's PicoP laser projection

2007-07-26T19:04:29+02:00

Via EdaGeek

Microvision announced that they have signed an agreement with Motorola to put their PicoP projector into future Motorola products. The PicoP is an ultra-miniature laser based display that enables a "big screen" viewing experience from mobile devices.

By projecting content displayed on the device screen onto a wall, object or even a curved surface, mobile users could easily share Websites or multimedia applications such as movies, personal videos, mobile TV, photographs and presentations with friends or business colleagues.

Press Release [Microvision]

Global mobile phone use to hit record 3.25 billion

2007-07-17T00:27:24+02:00

Global mobile phone use to hit record 3.25 billion ( i.e. half world population )

LONDON (Reuters) - Global mobile phone use will top 3.25 billion -- equivalent to around half the world's population -- in 2007 as cell phone demand booms in China, India and Africa, a survey said on Wednesday. From African farmers to Chinese factory workers, mobile phone subscriptions will pass the 3 billion mark in July and exceed 3.25 billion by the end of the year, according to a report by UK-based telecoms analysis company The Mobile World.

The Luke Johnson Phone Experiment

2007-01-15T23:50:00+01:00

From Textually.org

The Cell Freak reports on a cell phone experiment by 27 year-old Luke Johnson from Arizona, solliciting calls to his cellphone through a video published on YouTube.

"The idea is to find out how many people will call me if I post my cell phone on the Internet for the whole world to see. Call my cell phone. I don't care why you call or what you say. .. Meanwhile, I'm going to keep track of how many calls I receive to find out how many strangers will call someone they've never met before in their entire life."

So far 11,914 people have taken Luke Johnson up on his offer, some from as far away as Japan, Thailand, and South Africa and and his social project has been picked up by CNN.

Finger Touching Wearable Mobile Device

2007-01-10T22:21:24+01:00

Re-blogged from Textually.org (via Yanko Design)

A wearable mobile device for enhanced chatting, by Designer Sunman Kwo.

"A new wearable device that anyone can communicate with that is easier and lighter in mobile circumstances corresponding to the 3.5G, 4G communication standard. Human hand is the most basic communication method.

For easier and simpler controls, it uses the instinctive input method "finger joint". Excluding the thumb, each finger joint makes up twelve buttons, with "the knuckle button", using the cell phone's 3X4 keypad, likely being the most popular input method."

iPhon

2007-01-10T22:15:00+01:00

breathtaking :-@

Engadget

Gizmodo

Cell Phone-Linked Breathalyzer

2006-12-29T21:48:45+01:00

Via Textually.org [Tokyomango]

A breathalyer from Japan.

Talking space

2006-11-07T00:17:38+01:00

From Textually.org (via Designboom)

Yang Shi Wei and Shawn Wein Shin from Taiwan have designed "Talking Space", a lampshade that creates a space to close off voice during phone conversations

In the designers' own words:

People enjoy the feeling at party. We always hear much sound about laugh, games, music or play... It's good!! Let we relax and excite. Everything is fine. Playing with your friend. But now, your phone is ringing. It maybe tells an important message to you. Can you talk with the other side on noisy place? You need to leave, and try to find another place to close off voice. Going to outside ?! It's just one of way to solve problems. Have another way?

Iris recognition technology for mobile phones

2006-11-06T23:23:43+01:00

Re-blogged from Pink Tentacle

Oki Electric announced the development of iris recognition technology for camera-equipped mobile phones. Unlike Oki’s previous iris recognition technology that relies on infrared cameras for the iris scan, the new technology uses ordinary cellphone cameras. With plans to make the technology commercially available in March 2007, Oki hopes to boost the security of cellphone payment systems. According to Oki, any camera-equipped cellphone or PDA can perform iris recognition once the special software is installed. Identification accuracy is said to be high, with only 1 in 100,000 scans resulting in error, and the system can tell the difference between flesh-and-blood eyes and photographs.

Spoken SMS for the hearing impaired

2006-10-30T14:50:00+01:00

From Textually.org

According to Tokyomanga, "Japan's Ministry of Health just launched a major collaborative effort with 10+ companies and research institutes to create highly exportable, high-tech devices for people with hearing and vision disabilities, including one that will instantly translate spoken words into cell phone text messages for the hearing impaired"

Cell phone emissions excite the brain cortex

2006-07-03T23:39:15+02:00

Source: Eurekalert

Electromagnetic fields from cell phones excite the brain cortex adjacent to it, with potential implications for individuals with epilepsy, or other neurological conditions. This finding is published in Annals of Neurology

More than 500 million people in the world use cell phones which emit electromagnetic fields (EMFs). Though many studies have looked at the effects of EMFs on the body, few have focused on their effects on the brain. Such effects could be harmful, neutral, or beneficial and might be particularly important for individuals with conditions involving cortical excitability, such as epilepsy.

Researchers in Italy, led by Paolo M. Rossini, M.D., Ph.D. of Fatebenefratelli, used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to investigate brain function under exposure to electromagnetic fields from a common type of cell phone. Their study reports the effects of EMF exposure on brain physiology for the first time.

The researchers developed a double-blind study in which 15 young male volunteers were exposed to EMF signals from a GSM 900 cell phone for 45 minutes. They measured Motor Evoked Potentials (MEPs) during motor cortex TMS before, and immediately after EMF exposure, and also one hour later.

In 12 of the 15 subjects, the data showed an excitability change in the motor cortex adjacent to the cell phone. "Intracortical excitability was significantly modified, short intracortical inhibition was reduced and facilitation enhanced," the authors report. They found that the effects of the EMF were transient and the subjects' brains tended to return toward baseline conditions one hour after the exposure.

It would be premature to presume that this work implies that using a cell phone is bad for the brain in any way. Much more work needs to be done to understand whether these electrical changes in the brain make any difference whatsoever in the way we think or in any disease process in which cortical excitability is affected.

###

Article: "Mobile phone emissions and human brain excitability." Ferreri, Florinda; Curcio, Giuseppe; Pasqualetti, Patrizio; De Gennaro, Luigi; Fini, Rita; Rossini, Paolo. Annals of Neurology; July 2006; (DOI: 10.1002/ana.20906 ).

Abstract

Objective

To test - via Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) - the excitability of each brain hemisphere after real or sham exposure to the electromagnetic field (EMF) generated by a mobile phone operating in the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM).

Methods

Fifteen male volunteers attended two experimental sessions, one week apart, in a cross-over, double-blind paradigm. In one session the signal was turned ON (EMF-on, real exposure), in the other it was turned OFF (EMF-off, sham exposure), for 45 minutes. Motor Evoked Potentials (MEPs) were recorded using a paired-pulse paradigm (testing intracortical excitability with 1 to 17 ms interstimulus intervals), both before and at different times after exposure to the EMF. Short Intracortical Inhibition (SICI) and Facilitation (ICF) curves were evaluated both on the exposed and non-exposed hemispheres. Tympanic temperature was collected during each session.

Results

The intracortical excitability curve becomes significantly modified during real exposure, with SICI being reduced and ICF enhanced in the acutely exposed brain hemisphere as compared to the contralateral, non-exposed hemisphere or to sham exposure. Tympanic temperature showed no significant main effect or interactions.