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DoCoMos Finger Phone
A reader writes: "DoCoMo has done it again. This time they have a phone where the speaker is your finger. Put your finger in your ear and listen as you speak into the mic which is integrated into the wristwatch. Also in the wrist watch is some sort of gadget which sends the sound waves up your wrist and
into one of your fingers." Thanks to Cubase de Pilsen for sending me a link to one of the pictures.
Put your thumb in your ear. Extend your pinky to your mouth. Talk on your phone.
People around you might do this:
Make an orbital motion of the index finger around their temple while pointing at you.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Some people here point that nobody would want to talk with a finger in their ear. Actually lots of people now talk with the phone in one hand and the other on the other ear, if in a noisy environment. I don't see it a problem.
Where I see a problem is in that with this you absolutely need one hand to talk. No more trying to hold the thing between the shoulder and the head (it's bad for your neck, you know). Now you only have one hand free.
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Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
What if you need to let another person talk? The only thing that will make you look stupider than sticking your finger in your own ear is putting it in someone else's ... I see from the article too that you're supposed to control the phone by making various finger taps. I forsee a sudden rise in gang violence as you inadvertently give a hostile gangsign in the wrong neighborhood ... The picture in the article shows something that looks like it would knock you unscious if you happened to raise your hand to wipe your brow ...
"If I have seen further than other men, it is by stepping on their glasses." - Michael Swaine
Can we place it on the middle finger and give the caller an electric shock when they say something stupid? (touch-sensitive technology. Just point middle finger out, lift vertically...)
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
From the article:
The heck? What about all of us who have two pagers and a cell phone on our belts? (Well, I dropped pager #1, but I have to keep the other because of work--text messaging and all.) As if those aren't "wearable gadgets". I wouldn't want something clunky per se, but if you give me a watch that tells time, serves as a cell phone, and isn't the size of Montana, I'd probably wear it.
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-- Geof F. Morris
I guess that's the difference between Americans and Japanese that the inventor cited in the article.
Americans see that as crazy.
Japanese see it as neeto-keen.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
what will they come up with next? And when do we get to see cool stuff like this? And why wasn't that 'Ask Slashdot' about cool toys in Japan not on the front page?
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Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057
[o]_O
The vibrations will range from 100Hz and higher for voices I would think.
I don't know, but how much vibrations can your bones stand before it starts to become a (medical) problem?
Is this another fast way to get RSI?
Onet
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Chief Frog Inspector
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Why don't they try to put common communication devices (namely, telephones) in ballpoint pens?
A friend of mine used to work at a convenience store, and one of the regular patrons often would be engaged in conversation with my friend and then suddenly interrupt, "hang on, I've got a call coming in". My friend would grin and say, "Okay, Hank." He'd then step back, click the top of his ballpoint pen, and begin muttering and arguing with it, for lengths of up to 5 minutes. He claimed that his boss contacted him regularly through his ballpoint pen.
Might be scarcely believable if the guy didn't spend his spare time collecting aluminum cans fromt the dumpsters outside. *grins*
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
So when all those people were giving me the finger, what they were really meaning to say was "Someone wants to speak to you!"
So in the UK could they put it on two fingers(middle and index) just to make it look derogatory?
Actually, I want a phone that sits unobtrusively in my ear. I have a Jabra earpiece for my cellphone now, but it's a little big and the wire dangling down is awkward. I'm thinking something more like an in- or around-the-ear hearing aid. Not sure what to do about the wire, though...
The big reason why I don't wear the Jabra all the time is that it makes me look like a doofus. I wouldn't mind it if it was a socially acceptable thing to do. Yes, I think changing society's perceptions so that being wired is cool is a good thing!
And while we're at it, I also want a head-up display superimposed directly on my optic nerve. Just so long as I get to pick what's on the display, and I can turn both it and the phone off at my own discretion!
I've attended a couple trade shows this past month. I've noticed that the big flat plasma displays are really popular amongst exhibitors! Almost all the booths use them now. I'm hoping this means that the prices will drop into the consumer range soon.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
Reminds me of one of my old managers when she bought one of those vibrating pagers. For about a week, she went around saying 'Page me...Please! Page me! '
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
I understand the cocnept of bone conduction, its been used for a long time for ear-piece only mic/earphone sets and unobtrusive (collarbone placed) mics.
But who is honestly going to buy a product where you have to walk around with your finger in your ear to use it? Was marketing on an offsite when engineering came up with thsi idea?
DoCoMo is the wireless arm of NTT, Nippon Telephone, the largest telephone company in Japan. In fact, I think DoCoMo is the largest wireless company in the world. Don't be surprised if you start seeing them more in the US. I know they have started advertising in Newsweek, but I don't know if they are selling anything in the US yet. DoCoMo's wireless phones in Japan are very popular and much more featureful than anything you can find in the US.
Bonus points to anyone who can explain what the abbreviation DoCoMo stands for.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
Don't put that finger in your ear!! You don't know where that finger's been!
Smells finger suspiciously....
I'm not crazy! Not me! Here let me stick my thumb in your ear to prove it! You can talk to my hand friend too. It's OK, I swear.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Eww. Sorry, but the idea of having one of these phones and picking your nose is just too horrible. I've got this mental image of accidentally dialling someone who picks up the phone to the sound of me picking my nose...
;)
Actually, what I'm currently finding more worrying is that, of the three kind (if misguided, see below) moderators who modded me up, two gave me a funny. I can see it's mildly amusing, but it's not a windup or a joke. I'm being credited with writing a joke _I_ don't get
Even more worrying, though, is that the post hit 5. It's OK, but not one of my best ever - yet it got a 5. The only things I can see which are different are that
1) It's early - #17 or something
2) It's short
Neither of which should really help it. It's a serious post, not karma whoring before I get moaned at, but not _that_ good. Come on guys... For the second time, I genuinely want to mod one of my own comments as overrated.
SLASH is being rewritten, right? Any chance of a mod where it only lets you moderate if you're viewing in Newest First (so reducing this problem) and not at all until a thread hits a certain number of comments?
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
I'm not sticking my finger in anybody else's ear...
Ewwww
The user can create keyboard events by tap dancing predefined sequences on the floor with the shoe. Mouse clicks and movement is created by sticking the two index fingers up each nostril, and pointing the palm of the right hand at the screen allows for the positioning of the mouse pointer, and wiggling each index finger in the nose simulates mouse clicks.
"This new interface is intuitively easy to use for users that have never used a computer before," said Roozbeh Ghaffari, PHD Atomic Microscope scientist at Xerox PARC. "We are currently exploring ways to simulate the third mouse button, possibly by creating a hoola-hoop motion with the user's behind."
The first time I get a phone call from someone inadvertantly dialling me while masturbating, DoCoMo is going to have a lot to answer for!
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The gift of death metal does not smile on the good looking.
Public acceptance of this may not be too bad.
:-)
Now, just imagine the disaster that the penis phone might have been.
I have read through all of the comments (just about) and I have yet to find one person who isn't more concerned with how they would look using one of these than the actual practicality of it. I find it hard to believe that a bunch of geeks, who will wear shirts that have lines of perl code, and wear tool belts with leathermen and palmpilots on them actually care about what other people think. Personally, I feel stupid using my cell phone period. I don't use it because I think it looks cool, I use it because its incredibly convinent. A wrist/finger type phone would allow one to be much more discreet, not to mention it would be much nicer to carry around.
Just imagine, you are in class, you feel a vibration on your rist, check the little lcd to see who the incoming call is from, decide you will take it real quick. You tap your fingers together and hold your hand to your ear and tell your girlfriend you will be home in 30 minutes. I will be the first one inline to buy one of these (assuming they aren't too bulky on the rist).
Maybe someone will point and laugh at me because I have a finger in my ear, but I will still have my other hand free to give them the finger with.
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Remove the -x- from my email address to send.
Another /. topic today is "Force-Feedback Devices Provide Virtual Texture". put these stories together for a new concept of phone sex.
"Obtuse Anger is that which is greater than Right Anger" - Lewis Carroll
Not far out.
Some companies, I recall Sun Microsystems, were experimenting with computer embedded finger rings (Java powered) to replace swipe cards. I suppose you could put a mike in there too.
It means 'anywhere' in Japanese.
It would more normally be romanised as 'dokomo'.
What's going to happen when you want to put someone else on the phone?
Do you stick your finger in their ear? That will look quite silly. Won't "giving people the finger" become a socially accepted way of saying hi?
Geoff
"Honest, I'm not picking my nose ...."
This had to be a non-US concept of use, I can't see people sticking their fingers in their ear to talk. Then again, with the bozos on HWY 17 yapping away, I think some have mutated a 3rd arm. In that light, it wouldn't seem so strange. :-\
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Chief Frog Inspector
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
On the plus side, you won't need to buy those fake phones anymore to look cool, just plug your finger in your ear and yak away into whatever watch you have!
I really want to see a picture of someone using this thing, I can't imagine how stupid it must look..
... people tend to think it's rather rude to use a mobile in a lot of public places, or to stick your fingers in your ears, while talking to yourself (which is what you'll appear to be doing until people work out about these things) tends to get you dismissed as mad. As far as I can see, this combines each and every one of those problems with remarkable efficiency.
I'd guess public acceptance will be a huge problem, I'm afraid. This may simply be a leap too far.
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
Failing this, clothing with speakers and a mic suitably placed are probably a better option than sticking your finger in your ear.
The band houses a tiny microphone, plus a device that converts audio signals into vibrations.
I certainly hope they get a patent on the as-yet-unnamed 'device that converts audio signals into vibrations' before someone tries to copy it. I mean, jeez, they're definately onto something here! This whole time, I thought that audio signals WERE vibrations!
(I love it when journalists pad stories to make them more.. uh.. interesting. Good thing there's no -1 sarcastic (-: )
That's right, you know that Farenheit 451 is about book burning... but did you know that it's about pervasisve media too?
"Sooner or later, wireless phones will look more like earplugs, and people will wear them," Fukumoto says. "We just have to establish a culture that registers an idea with people that wearing a device is a cool thing."
. Remind anyone of "the SeaShell" that Mildred (Montag the fireman's wife) wears in the book? It was acceptable in their culture. How about a FREE ear-cellphone, folks -- all you have to do is accept continuous programming?
Next thing you know, we'll have huge flat screen TVs you can work into your walls....
Libertarianism is rich wolves and poor sheep playing gambler's ruin for dinner.
Why doesn't anyone ever answer the finger in this house!?!?
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What happens when you outlaw guns
I know that it is nowhere near April, but I keep getting the feeling that some of the recent posts on Slashdot are April Fool's jokes.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
1) "Again"? WhoTF is "DoCoMo"?
2) Why hasn't anyone brought up Inspector Gadget yet? This is EXACTLY how he talked on the phone.
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An abstained vote is a vote for Bush and Gore.
Non-meta-modded "Overrated" mods are killing Slashdot
(Hey Ryan! Here's your proof!)
"Science is about ego as much as it is about discovery and truth " - I said it, so sue me.
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He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an after life. He then realized there was a contradiction there, and simply hoped there wasn't an afterlife -Douglas Adams
/.'s 10 Millionth
> ...plus a device that converts audio signals into vibrations
Wow. We can call this new device...
a speaker.
The opinions stated herein do not necessarily represent those of anybody at all. Deal with it.
NewTechUser: Yeah
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NewTechUser: Yeh!
---Pause---
NewTechUser: Yeh Yeh!
---Pause---
NewTechUser: Yeh, yeh, yeh!
Dude! Shut the f^%$# up! Do you have *ANY* idea what I look like? Call me back in twenty minutes...
AT HOME!
For f*&^$%'s sake don't call me on this number again!
Ahh - My eye!
The doctor said I'm not supposed to get Slashdot in it!
Instruction manual:
Step 1. Stick finger in ear.
Step 2. Twist arm around so microphone is aimed at mouth.
Step 3. Dial by wiggling thumb.
I just tried it, it looks like I am shooting myself in the head with a "hand" gun.
Do you have to stick your finger in your friends ear if the call is for them?
I think the last bit of the article hits the nail on the head. Wearable computers aren't cool.
No teenage kid, college kid, soccer mom, or business man is going to stand in public with a finger in his ear, talking to his wrist.
This sounds like really really cool technology, but it's not going to be the "cool" thing to wear to the mall anytime soon.
wish
Vote for freedom!
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Call me when they do a "a string and two cans" type phone
Sorry, Charlie, but I've *already* got a patent on this! =-]
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Chief Frog Inspector
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
human://billy.j.mabray/
human://billy.j.mabray/
"Every good system has a backup." -- Dale Hanchey