Using Your Cellphone To Control RC Cars

rocannon writes "Cellular-news reports that NEC has announced a technical cooperation with the Japanese toy manufacturer, Konami to enable its range of MICROiR toys cars to be controlled from the DoCoMo N504iS handset or the J-N51 handset sold by J-Phone. More details on Cellular News."

Comments

I can see it now

[Perdition]

"Honey, I have to hang up now, my Celica is stuck in a draingrate..."

I dont know whats worse

[nich37ways]

That a company thinks that this is a somehow useful feature that will get people to buy their phone, or that i know that people will buy these phones for this *useful feature* to give themseleves 30 seconds of joy before losing the little car.

Having said that, I want one ;)

Re:I dont know whats worse

[Mononoke]

I agree 100%.

I'm still waiting for a phone that:

1. Uses a properly designed antenna.
2. Still works after it's dropped.
3. Has covered buttons so that I don't accidentally dial when I sit down.
4. Has decent battery life.

What I don't need/want:

1. Games. I've got a pack of cards that works without batteries.
2. A camera. I've got a camera with a real lens.
3. A PDA. Once again, more wasted battery power.

I just want a friggin' phone that works.

Re:I dont know whats worse

[nich37ways]

A PDA and camera are two of my pet hates for new mobile features. The picture quality of the phone *cameras* from the real life examples I have seen, not just the doctored photos that Nokia, and others stick into their adds make it look like such a horrid waste of money. I would like to see a simple/standard way of connecting digital cameras to mobiles as that would, at least allow for some kind of half decent image quality.

As for using a phone as a PDA, that is the silliest idea i have ever seen. A PDA is meant to have a nice and *big* screen which makes it easy to use. Meanwhile a phone is meant to be compact and easy to hold in one hand. These two things do NOT work together. A wide phone is a pain in the arse to use as you can not hold it properly. While a slim PDA is useless as you can not display enough useful information across the screen.

I want my gadgets seperate damn it! One tool, should do one job well. It should not do half a dozen really badly.

Re:I dont know whats worse

[Poeir]

I would like to see a simple/standard way of connecting digital cameras to mobiles as that would, at least allow for some kind of half decent image quality.

What are you suggesting, some kind of "Universal Serial Bus?"

Re:I dont know whats worse

[m0RpHeus]

I'm still waiting for a phone that:

1. Uses a properly designed antenna.
2. Still works after it's dropped.
3. Has covered buttons so that I don't accidentally dial when I sit down.
4. Has decent battery life.


Well, if what you need is a GSM phone, I suggest you get one of those m-series of Siemens (m45, m35, etc). Shock proof (my friends play catch with it), antenna is hidden but still has strong signal, and decent battery life. As for the cover, while it doesn't have a cover, it does have auto key-lock. It locks the keys after not using it within 30 seconds. Not enabled by default. Anyway, most new GSM phones that come out these days have the auto-keylock feature anyway. Me, I'm still using my old Ericsson R320.

Not News

[rob_canoe]

This is not news, James Bond was doing this years ago.

Another Driving Distraction

[rodney dill]

People have enough trouble just talking on their cell phones when driving. Now they'll drive their RC car off the dashboard before plowing into to rear of a semi with their real car.

Re:Another Driving Distraction

[LewisH]

I agree!!! I'm sick of seeing freakin' blondes swerving all over the freeway talking on the cell phone and drinking their coffee!! So adding a little car for them to play with on the dash may not be the best idea guys. It's becoming quite obvious the technicians at these companies are just bored... I mean which genius woke up one morning with a hotwheels car in one hand and his cell phone in the other and said "today I will make this control this to cause more wrecks on the freeway!" I mean if we all had sudden sparks or ispiration like that the world would be such a better place...

Bluetooth Anyone?

[notb4dinner]

Wouldn't Bluetooth be a better way of achieving this? If they were to make the cars recieve they're control via Bluetooth, any Bluetooth device (including phones) with the appropriate software could control them. This would mean your not tied into buying a particular phone for what is nothing more than a gimmick (albeit an incredibly cool gimmick). Of course I make this with no real understanding of the latency involved in Bluetooth or the cost of a reciever (although I do remember it was originally supposed to be cheap enough to embed in everything).

Re:Bluetooth Anyone?

[Bingo Foo]

That's fine if you never want to drive it more than one meter in any direction.

Plan

[the uNF cola]

1. Place rc car movable plastic cup of water on shelf over brothers bed.
2. Place rc car on shelf.
3. Leave early.
4. Drive car into water.
5. Hilarity ensues :)

I dont know whats worse ... but cool/T68i

[adzoox]

Having the added ability to use my T68i as an iTunes and DVD player controller for my Mac is a nice value bonus.

I have ended up using Salling Clicker (linked above) for more things than I thought. (keynote, turn on password protection, etc)

While controlling remote control cars may not be all that cool. (Range is horrible for those little cockroach cars) I do think it would be nice to have something like the feature integrated into Sony Clies where you can control ANY TV STEREO or CABLE BOX with just the selection of a brand name and type of device. I would love to be able to do this with my phone.

After talking to the programmer of Romeo, a similar program - I have been keeping up with developments that t68i phones will soon be able to control TV's and VCRs, and etc - through an actual "on phone program" - right now Romeo and Salling Clicker are Push based.

Does anyone know if there is an infrared to bluetooth or vice versa converter coming out?

P.S.:

[Botchka]

I am posting this from my cellphone whilst cruising down the interstate at 85.4 miles per hour. Weehawww........

The Code!

[Tranvisor]

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start makes your RC car have 30 lives ;)

Re:The Code!

[fastrpussycatkilkil!]

As far as I remember, the correct sequence is Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, B, A, Start

Re:what is it with...

[grungeman]

The Japanese really use the fact that their country is an island (actually many islands) as an excuse for almost everything.

Not many foreigners in Japan -> because Japan is an island
People eat a lot of fish -> Japan is an island, you know
Cannot speak foreign languages -> Must be because Japan is an island

We really had a lot of fun in Japan, hearing this "shimaguni dakara" (because it's an island country) all over the place.

A better idea

[grungeman]

Allow people to control a real car with their mobilephone. This way they wouldn't need to keep one hand on the steering wheel when using their phone during driving.

Re:What does it cost?

[dtldl]

That honestly could have been modded funny. The cars are IR - infra red controlled and a lot of modern phones have IR ports on them, so just a litle program on the phone to send the right signals and presto phone controlled cars.