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Presence Examples From Forbes Magazine FEATURE-DoCoMo researchers dream big for future phones Reuters, 03.28.04 TOKYO, March 29 (Reuters) - A mobile phone that can communicate sight, touch, smell, taste and emotion might sound fantastical, but that is exactly what NTT DoCoMo Inc's <9437.T> chief technology officer aims to develop. "Right now, our mobile phones can relay voice and images, but we need to strengthen our research into the communication of the rest of the five senses," Kota Kinoshita told Reuters in an interview. "Our president, Keiji Tachikawa, dreams of using phones to beam things physically. That may not be possible, but I think we will eventually be able to offer users a virtual experience like that." Kinoshita heads the largest Japanese mobile phone operator's research and development efforts, which take place in a sprawling 64,300 square metre (692,100 sq ft) facility known as Yokosuka Research Park (YRP), about 90 minutes southeast of Tokyo. Nestled in an area known historically as one of Japan's gateways to the outside, YRP is the only research facility of its size in the world that is run by a telecoms operator, according to DoCoMo. YRP, built in 1998, has an annual budget of about 130 billion yen ($1.24 billion) and roughly 1,200 researchers. It is a miniature town with its own hotel, restaurants, train station and even a dentist. In addition to DoCoMo, over 50 companies such as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd <6752.T>, Canon Inc <7751.T> and Finland's Nokia <NOK1V.HE>, as well as more than half a dozen universities interested in collaborating with DoCoMo have set up research labs on the premises. Some say the facilities are reminiscent of the old AT&T Corp's (nyse: T - news - people) world-renowned Bell Labs in the United States. DoCoMo, whose name is a play on the Japanese word for "anywhere", categorises its R&D efforts into "research", defined as long-term projects and the pursuit of raw ideas, and "development", projects that are closer to production. The two arms together receive a budget equivalent to three percent of DoCoMo's revenues, but the research arm gets priority. Developers must stay disciplined as they work on medium- to short-term projects such as HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access), a technology that allows operators to provide users with ten times the speed of current 3G (third-generation) networks with triple the efficiency. "Researchers can do anything they like. They get to claim however much they want of the budget, and they can pursue any idea," Kinoshita said. OFFBEAT IDEAS DoCoMo's vision, as portrayed in its promotional film "Vision 2010", is one in which business executives conduct international conference calls on big screens with simultaneous interpretation, small screens on shirt sleeves and car windows replace mobile phones, and children can learn pottery virtually with special wireless gloves that recreate touch. Researchers are essentially left to their own devices, although they might see their ideas cut short after three years if the company determines there is no potential. This has given birth to some offbeat ideas such as a phone that can pick up what a user is saying without vocalising words. Sensors placed on the upper lip, cheek and chin are meant to read jaw movements and relay the message via an electronic voice. So far, the three-year-old experiment allows the reading only of Japanese vowels. Kinoshita -- who said the technology could have applications for handicapped people or those working in noisy environments such as construction sites -- added that the company would decide soon on whether to continue the experiment. In another project, researchers are testing the possibility of what they call "three-dimensional sound". Kinoshita envisions a future in which mobile phones can produce sounds that appear to come from different directions, so someone could walk into a museum and receive commentaries from their phones as if they're coming from the artefacts themselves. Or a businessman could be on a three-way conference call via mobile phone and the other participants' voices, to avoid mix- ups, would appear to come from two different directions. Kinoshita believes commercialisation of this product might be possible in about two years. "We've pretty much solved three-dimensional sound, so the next step is three-dimensional images," said Kinoshita. "I don't know what the timing will be, but I want users to be able to project an image from their phones and feel like they can touch it. If only we can recreate smell and taste too. That would be the ultimate," he added with a chuckle. ($1=105.28 yen) |