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New Japanese Mobile Phones Detect Motion
GreenTea writes "Some of the latest mobile phones in Japan come with motion sensors that let users detect motion or play action games like those on the Nintendo Wii console. The D904i from NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile carrier, contains a tiny motion sensor that detects shaking and tilting, company spokesman Nobuyuki Hatanaka said. 'The software supports three main types of motion: shake, rock and roll. Shake can be used for actions such as rolling dice and shuffling MP3 decks. Rock interprets right, left, up and down gestures to generate traditional cursor-style user input commands. Roll offers joystick control by responding to tilting motions used in navigating games, maps or Web pages.'"
First game is You are Gundam I love gundam, but it's quite a lol
Usually I just shake it to hear the parts rattle inside after I've thrown it across the room. It will only be a matter of time before we have concussions thanks to the wii-esque gaming that will be happening.
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Motion sensing cellphones been out for about two years now. Why is this news?
Not sure what the huge deal is. My Samsung YP-T8 MP3 player has this feature. Sort of useless, but kinda fun. More about this MP3 player from Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2005/05/10/samsung-yp-t8-p ics-and-specs/
I found this which seems to be the same thing. http://guir.berkeley.edu/projects/tinymotion/
Who writes this shit? Did the writer actually spend two seconds imagining a player swinging the cell phone like a tennis racket or golf club? And the player is watching the tiny screen that most phones have, while he is swinging it?
Put down the crack pipe and repeat after me: this motion sensing phone will NOT play games like those on the Nintendo Wii. It may allow you to play Q-Bert or some other outdated game, but is nowhere close to the innovation offered by the Wii controller.
Its about time! The wii limited us to throwing the remote into the TV. Now the playing field is much more open!
The Samsung SPH-A940 I got in November 2005 has this under "motion fun". The novelty doesn't last very long.
To Big Joe Turner. If only it detected Shake, Rattle and Roll...
Task Mangler
If they're going to bundle action games with these phones there had better be a roll cage accessory. Also a good way to sell more phones. Drop and shatter one, need another.
This device used the rock and scroll interface to flick between menu items, pan, zoom etc.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
My GOD ! That IS NEWS That MATTERS. How could I ever get along without Slash dot !!
Maybe they can program the phone to detect when the user is driving a vehicle and disable the phone.
on the night you get married
My Vodafone/SoftBank v603sh had this over a year ago, and it was a 1 yen phone! Motion Sensor for Golf and some Sega FPS, Microphone for Singstar Clone, Analog TV/FM with flip screen for widescreen, 2MP camera with Optical Zoom...ahhh loved that little phone.. pity I moved back to NZ ;)
You could even record off TV to the SD card on the phone - it supported EPG over data so it had Tivo-esque functionality!
http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/product/2G/model/v_603sh/
The Nokia 5500 already has this capability. It has a 3-axis accelerometer in it.
What are you expecting to find here?
..regular old cell phones that could be used to make calls, text, and maybe take the occasional photo? Cell phones are becoming so over bloated with features that 90% of users don't use, or may not even know how to use. They simply buy it because they have to have the 'best' phone on the block. All these features also create more distractions for when people are trying to drive and use their phone. Granted, I replaced my old VI660 with an A900, the only feature I don't really use is bluetooth. Other than that, I actually use it for photos, to play mp3s while working out, and what phones are supposed to be used for.
Kyle
Old news. My sharp V603SH, which I bought about 1 year ago does that. You can use it to play games such as golf with a virtual golf club, it has a step-counter for jogging. Oh, not only motion detector, it has an internal COMPASS too.
http://id3as.livejournal.com/
"Some of the latest mobile phones in Japan come with motion sensors that let users detect motion or play action games like those on the Nintendo Wii console."
That misconstrued this to think the phone would let you set it up and only record video when there's "motion". That wouldn't be too bad if you ask me. Little extra doo dad to record the babysitter or some other random recordable thing.
I've read Slashdot for the last 5 years, and now I start posting... Go figure
It's kind of sad when a troll is more interesting than the FA. Keep up the good work /. editors!
Rock interprets right, left, up and down gestures to generate traditional cursor-style user input commands. Roll offers joystick control by responding to tilting motions used in navigating games, maps or Web pages.
Just imagine what it could look like to scroll through an up down menu using motion sensing in a phone.
- Dan
Is it just me or does this seem like something that could lead to being abused? Perhaps by big brother? I remember when cell phone companies began touting how they were equipped with GPS, "to help you with navigation and E911." Now these phones can be used to track anyone who carries it and at any time a government agency can peep your location. Perhaps with this addition to the cell phone, agencies will now be able to detect WHAT you (or your phone I guess) is doing.
It just provokes me to ask "What Islam is? Where does it come from?", and open the Wikipedia article about it.
http://id3as.livejournal.com/
Looks like the OpenMoko phone, the Neo1973 (its name reflects the fact that it hopes to be the rebirth of mobile technology, which started with the first cell phone in 1973), is slated to include an accelerometer in its next release, due out in June 2007. This looks like a very cool project - I know I'm planning to invest in one of the next version of the hardware platform... Dave
That's Earth Quake, surely the Japanese would find motion detection more useful for that. There would even be a market for them in California
Watch those corners
This stuff is complete crud. If the editors did any work (yeah that's you Zonk) then they would have linked to some actual information on the technology. Have a looky here:
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http://www.gesturetekmobile.com/inside.html
They use the camera in your phone to detect motion. The same idea as an optical mouse. The problem with this is the camera uses a hell of a lot of power while taking photos normally. - From 0.5 to 2Watts peak according to EETimes : http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml;jsession
So using this gesture recognition will run down your battery something crazy.
It also relies on being able to track movements through the camera. So if your hand obscures the camera, or you're not pointing your phone at something steady then this thing will not work at all. Sure even somebody walking in front of you from left to right might cause the gesture recognition to move left.
So, all in all I think this is a terrible terrible hack. If they can get it working then more power to them. But for gods sake, if you want gesture recognition just use an accellerometer. The complaints about high prices are simply because there isn't any massive market yet. When accelerometers start being included in phones, economies of scale will bring the price down.
-Vince
.. how this actually would be useful. With the Wii you're looking at a static display, but if the display was on the remote, I figure it would only be annoying moving it around?
Come to think of it, it would be nice even without the gyroscopes, just to be able to use the up/down buttons to advance slides, and maybe the rocker switch to move the mouse.
Because the Wii has made motion sensing "Fun (tm) (r) (c)" !!!
I, for one, welcome our latest busyness buzzword.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
the screen!
You tilt/swing the wiimote, the TV won't follow you.
For mobile phone screen though will follow your action.
Everyone who has tried Wario on Gameboy would probably agree that it's a challenge to follow the screen while you set the Gameboy in motion...
Had this been around a while longer, there might well have have been mitigating circumstances when a certain supermodel paid a visit to the court after throwing her phone at her maid ...perhaps her lawyer forgot to tell the court she was a beta tester.
My Nokia 5500 Sport has it, and it's pretty nice but playing while looking at the screen you're moving isn't that easy.
The software supports three main types of motion: shake, rock and roll.
...it was supposed to be "shake, RATTLE and roll"...
That's great! You could actively monitor delta attitude and velocity vectors of the caller on the other telephone, for example...
The purpose of existence is to make money.
Now if they can just integrate sex and drugs into it, I'm totally getting one!