Hasta La Gadget!

Another prototype from DoCoMo aimed at Nihon‘s commuters, the i beam concept tablet forgoes any touch at all, allowing the user (once they’re at the specified ‘sweet spot’) to navigate around apps and screens using your eyes. Two sensors along the bottom edge of the tablet track both of your eyes and after a slightly laborious configuration setup, we were able to tour around the prototype slabs features without laying a finger on it. The navigational dot was a little erratic, but we’ll put that down to prototype nerves. The tablet was otherwise able to follow our eye-line and fulfill what we wanted it to do.

Returning to the home screen by targeting the kill box in the top right corner proved to be the most difficult thing — we soon resorted to tapping at the screen for that. DoCoMo showcased an eye-controlled game, alongside picture galleries, a web browser and a reader app. The e-book client seemed to be the most heavily involved, with the ability to look up words with a hard-stare, and flip pages by eyeing the two lower corners. The Japanese carrier isn’t planning a consumer launch any time soon — and the hardware comes with a pretty pronounced chin at the moment, but if you like staring at someone staring at a tablet, our eyes-on is after the break.

Continue reading NTT DoCoMo’s i beam tablet prototype is driven by your eyes (video)

Filed under: Tablets, Alt

NTT DoCoMo’s i beam tablet prototype is driven by your eyes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Folded in between DoCoMo R&D prototypes and One Piece-themed smartphones unlikely to make it across the Pacific, NEC’s new Android tablet caught our eye. The 7-inch NEC Medias Tab UL is one very svelte slab. Measuring in at just 7.9mm (0.3 inches) thick and weighing a mere 250g (0.55 lbs), the tablet still manages to house a 3,100mAh battery, and a Snapdragon MSM8960 1.5GHz dual-core processor. If you’d compare it to the Nexus 7, Google’s own effort look a little weighty and thick against this white-finish tablet. Performance from the dual-core chip is also suitably impressive, despite the curious DoCoMo-decked Android skin coating the Ice Cream Sandwich OS.

In true Japanese style, there’s a TV aerial embedded within the side and while it won’t broadcast the crisp high-definition delights of NOTTV, there’s plenty of terrestrial viewing available — if you stay in the Land of the Rising Sun. We were pleasantly surprised with its crisp WXGA screen, which looks to be TFT. The 1,280 x 800 resolution display meant videos and websites looked sharp, while there was barely any color degradation at wider angles. On DoCoMO’s network, users can expect to see download speeds up to 75Mbs, and upload speeds hitting up to 25Mbps. The tablet is now on sale across Japan, but there’s still no word yet on it launching elsewhere.

Continue reading NEC Medias Tab UL runs Android 4.0, weighs just over half a pound (hands-on)

Filed under: Tablets

NEC Medias Tab UL runs Android 4.0, weighs just over half a pound (hands-on) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 07:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maintaining your balance on a packed train while trying to handle the big-screened smartphones of today is often a tough challenge. At least NTT DoCoMo thinks so, offering up a new interface to avoid such issues — and throw in some extra gesture shortcuts. Gesture UI is a combination hardware-software prototype that the Japanese carrier is showing at this year’s CEATEC showcase in Japan. Consisting of a trio of grip sensors located along the two edges and across the back of the prototype phone, these can each detect up to five levels of pressure from your hand, as well as detecting how you’re holding the device.

This data is then channeled into the user interface, which allows the user to customize what the device does under certain conditions. We saw demonstrations of grip “shortcuts” to send you back to the homescreen, while holding certain portions of the sides would launched pre-assigned apps — pinching at the top of this device launched the internet browser. Once inside the browser, the Grip UI also allows the user to transfer across to other programs without returning to the aforementioned homescreen, using a combination of gripping and swiping across the display. We get a handle on the prototype UI inside DoCoMo’s imaginary train right after the break.

Continue reading NTT DoCoMo Grip UI detects how you hold your device, makes big phones friendly for tiny hands (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

NTT DoCoMo Grip UI detects how you hold your device, makes big phones friendly for tiny hands (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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[CEATEC 2012] It is usually frowned upon to talk on the phone when using public transport, but the same can’t be said when it comes to using your phones for other purposes. Well, Docomo has come up with some new ways to help commuters use their mobile devices when they’ve got one hand holding onto the rail (or bags) and only one hand free. First up is a solution called Grip UI. During the demonstration, they outfitted an Android smartphone with a bunch of sensors on the side of the phone. These sensors can detect the pressure from your hand that’s holding the phone and can let you operate it differently. Instead of having to swipe your finger across the screen to unlock your phone, you can just grip the sides of the phone to turn on the display, and then a bit harder to fully unlock it.
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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Docomo Shabette Robo keeps you in the know, Docomo works on video-calls for glasses-shaped phones,

NTT DOCOMO today announced that on November 1 it will launch the world’s first commercial mobile service for translation of conversations between people speaking Japanese and other languages, called Hanashite Hon’yaku (automatic voice translation service). DOCOMO also announced today the October 11 launch of Utsushite Hon’yaku (AR translator with word recognition camera), which translates foreign menus and signage by simply placing a smartphone camera in front of text.
Hanashite Hon’yaku …