Sign of the Times
Sign of the Times

Sign of the Times

OKI Launches Face Sensing Engine 3.0

Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. announced the development of Face Sensing Engine (FSE) Ver3.0, a middleware for embedded systems. OKI adds a new function that can detect several faces from a data of a single photo and can verify specific faces, providing industry-leading processing performance. Photos taken by mobile phones are usually stored based on the date and time the particular photo was taken, which makes it difficult to sort them and search among them. With OKI’s FSE ver.3.0, photos are automatically stored according to who is in the photo, enabling easier access to the photo.

3G Phone Checks Drunk Drivers

According to an article in the local media, a cell-phone-enabled breath analyzer system developed by DoCoMo is proving popular among bus and transport companies. The new system, which uses a DoCoMo 3G handset, is designed to be foolproof. First, the driver makes a video-phone call to his or her company and breathes into the analyzer connected to their cell phone. The video image showing the driver blowing into the analyzer and data regarding the alcohol concentration on his or her breath are transmitted to the company and confirmed by computer there.

M-Commerce Convergence Announced

East Japan Railway Company (JR East), NTT DoCoMo, JCB, and bitWallet just announced that they have agreed to share a common platform to enable their e-payment brands — Suica, iD, QUICPay and Edy — to share the same point-of-sale reader/writer device and data center. The system is expected to begin commercial operation with the Suica and iD brands in January 2007, with QUICPay and Edy [ .jpg image ] to be added subsequently.

JR Boosts m-Commerce and Survey Results

JR has announced they will drop the previous requirement to have the company’s “View” credit card in order to take advantage of their Mobile Suica service as of 21 October. They have also indicated that by sometime in December this year, SoftBank Mobile customers with FeliCa-enabled handsets (no model types announced) will also finally be able to use JR’s m-commerce system.

In Praise of My Japanese Cell Phone

We just noticed this article by Brad Stone on the Newsweek website and smiled quietly to ourselves… he gets it! Nothing in the way of news there though – if you’re a regular WWJ reader – but for main-stream media consumers based in the U.S., it’s certainly one of the better pieces we’ve seen in some time. The obvious reason for accuracy therein comes from the fact that he actually spent a little time here in Tokyo on vacation this summer and had the chance to really test drive a great handset. While Brad’s item did miss on a couple of points (DoCoMo launched their DCMX mobile credit card service this spring with biometric fingerprint authentication capability on Fujitsu phones, for example), overall it’s refreshing to see a story without too much “Gee Whiz, Martha”-material about how people in Japan are using their cell phone to surf the web or send email.

Drink Beer & Win a 1-Seg Digital TV Watch

Asahi Breweries has teamed up with Willcom to give away 5,000 1-Seg digital TV watches. According to the Willcom contest info page: “By inserting W-SIM in a slot, you can make a telephone call and use mail over the microcell network of Willcom.” No info on the hardware specifications, such as battery run time, etc., that we could find in a hurry; however, we’re looking forward to seeing these units popping up around town and are actually just rushing out the door now to buy a flat of brews so we hopefully get one of our own!

Improved Image Stabilization for Camera Phones

Osaka, Japan-based tech startup Eamex Corp. has developed an extremely compact new optical image stabilizer device targeted at use in camera phones. Given their small size, optical image stabilizers have generally proven unsuited to the size and power constraints presented in camera phones. The prototype module is just 14mm across and 1.5mm thick. Inside, the company has crafted a 12mm polymer actuator with a mass of just 0.024 grams, sandwiched between two electrode plates that provide for power – and hence control.

Kyocera to Share Research Costs

Kyocera Corp., which makes handsets for Carlyle Group Inc.’s Willcom Inc. and KDDI Corp., plans to boost profit by sharing research costs at its mobile phone and network businesses in Japan, U.S. and China, its president said. The company is creating a new unit to combine the businesses and shifting some development operations to India, President Makoto Kawamura said in an interview in Kyoto yesterday. The new unit will comprise of the company’s handset-making business in Japan, San Diego, California-based Kyocera Wireless Corp. and a cell phone business in China, Kawamura said.

Proof is in the Mobile Pudding

The good folks over at CIAJ (Communications and Information Network of Japan) issued a press item last week to announce results of their annual study on cellular phone use. According to CIAJ, “The study aims to capture on-going changes in the domestic mobile communications market and has been conducted since 1998.”

The study includes some interesting results related to actual usage of mobile Internet services, including email, music, GPS, mobile TV, e-wallets, number portability and more. The organization says they mailed questionnaires to 600 cellular phone users (male: 303, female: 297; by age group, under 20: 102, twenties: 101, thirties: 108, forties: 95, fifties: 95, sixties and above: 99) residing in the larger Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas from the end of March through April, 2006…

DoCoMo Shows Sound QR Technology

DoCoMo labs has demonstrated that they can insert audio data on broadcast signals – in music and voice – which can be translated by enabled mobile phones into text messages and URL links. The so-called “Sound QR” uses OFDM modulation technology which is transmitted in parallel by using two or more frequencies at the same time to suppress the influence of area noise and address the potential tone quality deterioration.