DoCoMo ring converts finger to phone receiver

Telecomworldwire, Oct 10, 2005

TELECOMWORLDWIRE-10 October 2005-DoCoMo ring converts finger to phone receiver(C)1994-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com

Details of a ring being developed to enable a finger to act as a phone receiver, have been unveiled by DoCoMo, a mobile operator in Japan.

According to DoCoMo, its Ubi-Wa, which means 'speak by finger' or 'finger ring', is worn on a finger, which is then placed into the user's ear. Speech sounds are converted to vibrations by the ring and these travel into the ear canal to be converted back into speech.

The Ubi-Wa is intended for use in noisy situations where the user can not hear who they are calling. As development continues, there are concerns that the ring will become too small to hold functioning buttons. A suggested solution involves tapping out predefined rhythms with the thumb and ring-wearing finger - different functions would be performed by individual rhythms. This has been called the UbiButton.

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