I received an announcement forwarded from one of my readers about a healthcare product in Japan - Wireless Japan 08 show. Omron had introduced a weighing machine that uses infrared to beam data from the device to a computer for monitoring one's body fat over time - now that's a useful thing these days! Quite a clever thing. Here's the picture from the show, the Omron HBF-362 (beaming from the device) and from their website (the full view of the product), respectively:
Also from the same Wireless Japan 08, there were phones from Sharp and Docomo that have built-in health monitoring capabilities, and beaming to local devices using infrared. From the Sharp SH706iw can measure your heartrate using the sensor on the underside of the phone:
Here is Docomo's unidentified phone:
So I thought I should check out US products too, and lo and behold! There are at least two companies already using infrared in their products.
Roche Accu-Chek Blood Glucose Meter Systems: Compact Plus Meter, Compact Meter, Aviva and Active models (in order below):
A diagram from the Roche product brochure showing how to transfer data:
Polar Systems makes sports monitoring devices with infrared to beam data to PCs: RS800CX, S725X, CS600 and their IrDA-USB adaptor (below) - and 14 other models not shown here:
OK, so there is sufficient question out there about whether there are really any phones with infrared. So, here is the list I have personally found with IrSimple. I have not bothered with the slower IrDA 1.0 versions which are 115kbps or even the slightly faster IrDA 1.1 at 1Mbps. Just to prove to myself that the next generation IrSimple with 4Mbps that the Infrared Data Association members are talking about is real. I will continue to update here when I see new models introduced. Watch this space!
So how do you print that email message from your smartphone if you really needed to? Perhaps it is a set of driving directions or a coupon? Sharp Japan has just introduced a fax machine (UX-D90CL or 'fappy') that allows you to also beam your message via infrared for printing using IrDA's IrSimple standard. Sharp's marketing has decided to call it "cordless digital fappy". I suppose if you desperately want a copy of your driving directions from your phone printed out or faxed, you just point and shoot it to the 'fappy'. Note the infrared window below the numeric pad. Sharp UX-D90CL
Other smaller printers, mostly portable and thermal, are also announced recently with IrSimple. Seiko DPU-S445 and Extech S5400 Three photo printers from Canon has already been available with IrSimple: Canon SELPH CP770, Canon ES1 and Canon iP90 I anticipate there are more products out there in with IrSimple that we have not heard about. Watch this space!
Looks like the folks at IrDA can no longer be accused of being asleep at the wheel for the past few years. At Wireless Japan 2008, one of the members of the Infrared Data Association demonstrated "Giga-IR", a whopping 1 Gbps data transmission on a handheld prototype.
At that speed, peer-to-peer beaming of any sort of files from your handheld phone/camera/pda/mp3/videocamera/etc becomes a reality. Today, the closest technology you can consider is Bluetooth but with its 3Mbps data rate, will severely restrict what file sizes you can beam. Single songs may be OK but longer videos may be tedious. RF technologies typically get harder to design and significantly more expensive as the data rates increase.
KDDI, who developed the "Giga-IR" expects beaming 20-30 songs using this new technology will take only 1-2 seconds. Now, that's impressive! Now applications are no longer limited by speed.
See video below.
IrDA has initiated a working group to complete the standard for "Giga-IR" which is expected to be complete by March 2009. Now, that too, is fast! I believe the Giga-IR module prices will be significantly lower than their RF counterparts and they will be able to persuade more device companies to implement this new technology.
I learned a new word today - "millenial" - it turns out is another name for "Gen-Y'ers". Yes, they are born between 1980 and 2000 and are also known as the Internet Generation, the Digital Generation, the Nintendo Generation.
In-Stat reports that mobile social networking is popular with the millenial generation (blogging, photo and video sharing, SMS, IM) and that the mobile handset is simply an extension of the user in most aspects of life.
In a unique book "Connecting to the Net Generation" (2007), Dr Reynol Junco and Dr Jeanna Mastrodicasa found in a survey of 7,705 college students in the US that:
97% own a computer
94% own a cellphone
76% use Instant Messaging (15% are logged on 24/7)
34% use websites as their primary source of news
28% author a blog and 44% read blogs
97% have downloaded music using peer-to-peer file sharing
49% regularly download music using peer-to-peer file sharing
75% of college students have a Facebook account
60% own some type of portable music and/or video device such as an iPod
I guess the iPhones and gPhones are heading in the right direction.
The diligent developers at IrDA have come up with a new standard that will address most of the complaints about IrDA 1.0, SIR, MIR, FIR, and the alphabet soup. And have called it IrSimple.
Simple to use - you can point any virtually anything that is IrSimple and press a button - and it works. I say 'vitrually' because it is not clear yet if there are any incompatibilities when real products are produced. And if there are any exceptions, then this will again be a big disappointment because once again there will be products that will be called IrSimple, but not really work - I really hope not!
Anyway, the good news is IrSimple will be 16 Mbps - that is 4 times faster than IrDA FIR! It means we can realistically beam an MP3 file and not have to wait 5 minutes and more!
Unless the Bluetooth SIG has been working secretly for a while, it does not seem they have a high speed version of their well known standard yet.
In addition, the IrDA folks have also agreed that this function can be implemented as a single button push, much like how your remote controller works - and I understand some products will even have its own hardware button on the product. So no more clicking through the menus to find the IrDA function to switch on and then click through to find the file to beam! Hurray! This alone will significantly increase the user awareness of IrDA in any product.
Get more information about IrSimple at the IrDA website: http://www.irda.org
SCENARIO: You just took a picture of your friends at a restaurant on a farewell dinner on your camera. And of course, you are not going to see each other for 6 months. So, when your friend asks: "Can I have that picture you just took?" what would you do?
Yesterday's answer: "Sure, I'll send it to your new address as soon as I develop it."
Today's answer can be: "Sure, I'll bluetooth it to your phone." This is because the camera you used is a camera phone with Bluetooth enabled. Sometimes you may even hear "Sure, let me beam it to your phone" - implying the infrared (IrDA) capability.
However, both answers today are very rare - in spite of what the developers of Bluetooth or IrDA tell you. Users just are not that ready to take the leap yet to transfer photos from one phone to another. Why?
Is it because they have tried to do it and found the transfer too slow?
Is it because they are aware of the function and tried to use the capability but cannot find it on the phone?
Is it because they are not aware of the function - and so have not tried it at all?
Is it because they have no need for the transfer, even with Bluetooth and IrDA present?
If the answer is in the first two questions, then the solution is a technical one. If the answer is in the last two questions, then the solution is a marketing one.
For Bluetooth, the awareness is relatively higher but their issue is the transfer rate is too slow.
For infrared, IrDA has developed a faster version called IrSimple, but the awareness of IrDA functionality by end users continues to be a big problem. Companies in Japan have already launched IrSimple products, but the rest of the world is still hesitant.
It seems these days to be a trend that people are putting their little pocket cameras to the ears and talking into it. Of course, this is not your normal Nikon or Olympus SLR sized one. But hey, that may be in someone's product roadmap! I am talking of course about those hand phone cameras - or should we call it a camera phone?
In any case, we have mostly considered the picture-taking capability as an added phone functionality, instead of the 'talking part' added to the camera functionality. So, what does that mean? One way to look at it is that the hand phone is integrating the camera.
So, what do you now want to do with your phone after you take pictures? Store the photo, show off your pictures (or even video) to your friends, post it on YouTube, print it later, send it to a friend across the country, copy it to your friend's phone, and so on.
I have personally even taken a picture of a coffee house in Beijing, send it to a translator to tell me how to pronounce it because I needed to tell someone what it is called - and the translator sends me back the 'pinyin' pronounciation by SMS - all within 3 minutes of me standing in front of the coffee house. Now, that's really cool!
Most of us have only one device in our pocket (or belt for the really techies) and that is usually a hand phone. Of course, there are some of us who also have a PDA, but that is going the same way as bell-bottoms. The old argument that one would rather have multiple devices has gone out of fashion because it is cooler to have one whizbang device than 3 old ones. Just look at why the iPhone is flying off the stores.
Simply, the functionality has become usable and rich enough to replace the other ones when you are away from your desk. Or in the case of the young and the young-at-heart (in Japan or elsewhere), their only experience had been the hand phone for everything they do since childhood!
The other useful functions like picture taking, video recording, voice recording are all now integrated into the single indispensable hand phone - which incidentally also makes phone calls. So why bother to carry other things? They only need additional chargers.
Also from the same Wireless Japan 08, there were phones from Sharp and Docomo that have built-in health monitoring capabilities, and beaming to local devices using infrared. From the Sharp SH706iw can measure your heartrate using the sensor on the underside of the phone: 
