video
video

video

3-D Avatars for Video Chat

Video-conferencing handsets are taking off, but what about those who shirk the spotlight? Engineers think animated 3-D avatars [.jpg image] may be the answer. “Think of when you’re having a bad hair day,” quips Mike Danielsen of Motorola Labs when asked why he has spent two years developing 3-D animated avatars that can mime a live user’s speech and actions on mobile-phone handsets. Motorola already has phone avatars available in China and Japan, but “they’re highly cartoony,” says Danielson. International competitors include Japan’s Oki Electric Industry, which has developed the FaceCommunicator application for PCs and mobile phones to generate both two- and three-dimensional animated avatars using motion- and voice-tracking as well as key commands.

Japan Cell-phone-accessible ATMs Coming

Cell-phone ATMsWWJ’s Lawrence Cosh-Ishii, our director of digital media and resident video and mobile guru, was in Tokyo this afternoon wrapping up a long day and heading for a few frosty Kirin lagers when he spotted this headline at a news kiosk. Normally, when we latch onto breaking Japan mobile news, we go into hypernewsroom mode, working the phones, Googling the keywords and pinging folks in the know to get as full and in-depth a report as we can — and get the gen onto the site pronto for our loyal WWJ community.

Today, in view of the fact that Tokyo’s Friday Happy Hour is already in progress, we decided to employ a little mobile Internet magic ourselves and get the info to you as directly as we can: Lars grabbed a snap with his trusty Sharp 3G camera keitai and fired it into the WWJ newsroom for more-or-less instant posting.

Oh yes: the news. Looks like Japanese mobilers will be able to access Mitsui Sumitomo ATMs using their phone starting this fall. Looks like the transaction will occur via the FeliCa IC chip. You’ll probably just have to set the phone on a little alcove in the machine and press some keys. More details when we get them. Have a great weekend and happy ‘Beer O’Clock’ wherever you are!

3GSM World Congress 2006 Awards

The nominees have been announced for this year’s 3GSM awards with the winners to take center stage during a VIP gala dinner in Barcelona’s fabulous National Palace on 14 February 2006. According to the organizers, Mobile communications as a new entertainment and information medium has become the ‘fourth screen,’ after television, cinema and the PC, capable of delivering a vast array of media rich content to users throughout the world. This year there are new categories for mobile gaming, sports, music, film and video content.

W-CDMA 900-MHz Calls Achieved

Nortel and QUALCOMM have successfully completed HSDPA calls in the 900-MHz band, a spectrum capable of delivering wireless broadband such as mobile TV, video-on-demand, video telephony and DSL-like services to rural areas. W-CDMA in the 900-MHz band is a cost-effective way to deliver nationwide high-speed wireless coverage. It achieves a 60-percent reduction in cell sites required to serve rural areas and delivers improved quality of service in urban areas by enhancing in-building penetration by 25 percent, according to the technology’s proponents.

Mobile Healthcare Launches Lifewatcher

After more than three years years in R&D, Tokyo-based Mobile Healthcare Inc. today announced the commercial launch of ‘Lifewatcher,’ a new disease management service that operates over mobile phones and the Internet. According to the company, Lifewatcher is a comprehensive, patient-centric, mobile disease self-management system for diabetes, obesity, and other lifestyle-related disease sufferers. It is critical for diabetes sufferers to track key health indicators such as blood sugar, blood pressure, calorie intake, exercise and their weight. WWJ posted a video interview with company president James Nakagawa on the then-under-development service in 2003.

Anime Network Launches on Sprint

Anime Network has announced a deal with Sprint to provide its mobile video content to Sprint Power Vision subscribers. The Anime Channel will be available first to Sprint Power Vision subscribers on select multimedia handsets on Sprint TV’s Channel 66. Sprint subscribers can access clips from up to five premium titles at a price point of an additional $4.95 per month plus standard data charges. Anime programming – delivered to Sprint through Zoovision – will include a wide range of genres such as Horror, Sci-Fi, Action, Comedy and Drama.