Japanese firm DoCoMo has developed a mobile phone that can take your pulse, calculate how many calories you’re burning and even if you have bad breath.
The Wellness phone also offers pep talks and can warn when you’re under stress.
From Associated Press:
Hold the phone with outstretched arms, and it turns into a mini body fat calculator. A sensor at the top of the phone takes your pulse from your fingertip.
Worried about bad breath? Use the phone’s breathalyzer. After spokesman Noriaki Tobita blew on a tiny hole on the side of the handset for about three seconds, the screen flashed, “Not too bad.”
The Wellness phone, developed by NTT DoCoMo and Mitsubishi Electric Corp., also asks questions to assesses stress levels and offers advice.
When the busy spokesman answered “Yes” to a series of questions – including “Do you feel lethargic?” and “Do you go to bed after midnight?” – a message appeared on the screen warning he was under a lot of stress.
“Don’t worry, tomorrow’s a fresh new day,” the phone then flashed. “Keep your chin up!”
Sadly, this bundle of goodness is still at the prototype stage and the company doesn’t sell outside of Japan. Wellness also has a network function and can monitor your calorie intake, though this is still at the testing stage.
I’m not sure if I want one because I’d make use of all its gadgets — though let’s face it, the breath one would always be handy LOL — or simply because it’s a cool piece of technology. Either way it’s an indication of where mobile phones and personal tech is going, packing more and more into a smaller package. It seems to offer an MP3 player function as well, which would be great if it had significant memory (is 30gb too greedy to ask for?).
Just wish I could find a picture of the damn thing — it’s not on the DoCoMo website.