(An employee of NTT DoCoMo demonstrates how to buy a softdrink from a vending machine with a mobile phone at the company's headquarters in Tokyo)
The Japanese have always been the first in cutting edge, sporting technology we will probably use years later. Now, a Japanese communication giant shares its vision of the future where everything from socialising to shopping will be done using cellphone...
In the Japan of 2020, a stressed-out salaryman may unwind from his hectic lifestyle by time-travelling back a few centuries and taking a virtual stroll through medieval Tokyo. As he walks over arched wooden bridges, he will chat with the avatars of his real world friends, admire pollution-free views of Mount Fuji and perhaps do some cash-free shopping for a digital download of a woodblock print.
He will navigate through the city once called Edo from the comfort of his intelligent living room, wearing 3D glasses and moving about by waving a super-networked mobile phone that is attached to his wrist like a watch. This is Nihonbashi in virtual Edo, an invisible tour guide will say in an upbeat if slightly tinny voice.
Its a virtual community that is popular worldwide. A lot of people have logged on today already! Welcome to the future as imagined by NTT DoCoMo, a leading force for innovation in the high-tech paradise that is Japan. Its Shangri-La is the Future Station, located in a skyscraper in Tokyo, where visitors are taken on tours of the companys mobile phone marvels , and treated to a glimpse of whats to come.
Such as the wearable phone of 2020 that it envisions will be the users constant companion , fitted with a small flip-out screen and capable of projecting images onto a wall or into thin air in the form of a hologram.
Made from recyclable materials and partially charged kinetically through body movements , the device will be equipped with translation software to connect the user to everyone else, anywhere, anytime.
The vision is bold, but in Japan that doesnt make it unrealistic.
A prototype of mobile phone (right) and smart phone (left) that have an ecofriendly body made of thinned wood
FUTURES ALREADY IN JAPAN
In many ways the mobile phone future has already arrived in Japan, where the evolution of the devices has taken a separate path to the rest of the world.
On Tokyos crowded subway trains, newspapers are a rare sight as most commuters plug themselves into their phones or other devices surfing, mailing, gaming or watching TV. Japanese cellphones started sending email 10 years ago, have had terrestrial TV for years and long boasted video cameras, barcode readers and an i-concierge assistant that gives hints on a late train or a traffic jam.
DoCoMos phones since 2007 feature a cashless payment system, which allows users to buy a soft drink from a vending machine or lunch at a hamburger chain, simply by swiping their phone over an electronic pad.
By having a phone you can do almost everything, said Takeshi Natsuno, known as the father of i-mode , the popular Internet service DoCoMo launched a decade ago, and now a professor at Tokyos Keio University.
All stores and 60 per cent of Tokyo taxis are equipped with readers so you can pay by phone, he said.
CUSTOMISED JAPANESE PHONES
DoCoMo co-develops phones with manufacturers such as NEC, Fujitsu and Panasonic, who then custom-make the handsets for it. Among recent offerings is the bright-yellow Kids Phone F05A by Fujitsu, which features a pull-string alarm that emits a shrill noise and sends an email with the childs location to the parents. In another new model, the two halves of the phone are held together magnetically and can be easily separated, allowing users to talk and Web-surf at the same time, or to split the device into a TV and a remote control . Other newcomers include a range of waterproof ones to use in the bathtub.
Despite, or perhaps because of, their sophistication , Japans mobile marvels are rarely seen outside the archipelago. Natsuno said in future he expects mobiles to boast advances such as basic AI, biometrics and batteries that last a week but he says it may not be the Japanese who make them first. Now the leaders of the industry are IT players, and telecom players are following, he said. AFP
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