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Japan researchers testing tiny ear computer
by Staff Writers
Tokyo (AFP) March 01, 2014


Drivers may use smartphones for maps: court
San Francisco (AFP) Feb 28, 2014 - A California appeals court has tossed out a fine for a driver checking a smartphone map to escape traffic, offering a new interpretation in the crackdown on "distracted driving."

A panel of judges reasoned that the summons and its $165 fine applied to holding mobile phones to converse while driving and said nothing of looking at maps on screens for directions.

"We conclude that the statute means what it says -- it prohibits a driver only from holding a wireless telephone while conversing on it," the appellate court said in a written ruling available online Friday.

"Consequently, we reverse his conviction."

The driver was sitting in congested traffic when a California Highway Patrol officer noticed him using his smartphone. In a subsequent appearance in court, both the officer and motorist testified he was using a smartphone map service.

The driver was found guilty and ordered to pay a fine, then appealed the case.

The ruling in the state that is home to Silicon Valley came as laws and informal codes of conduct are under pressure to adapt to lifestyles in which mobile devices let people be connected to the Internet almost anywhere.

Any potential precedent set by the ruling would be legally limited to California but has the potential to effect how traffic laws are shaped or interpreted in other parts of the country.

Google to offer Lego-like modular phone in 2015
Mountain View, Calif. (UPI) Feb 27, 2013 - U.S. tech giant Google has announced it plans to offer $50 customizable modular phones -- that users can modify themselves -- by early next year.

Google confirmed ongoing work on Project Ara, an effort to create phones that can be easily updated by users by switching parts in an out of the phones like Lego blocks, Time magazine reported.

The project of Motorola's Advanced Technology and Projects group -- which Google sold to Lenovo for nearly $3 billion in January -- has been retained by Google for further work.

A working prototype could be completed within the next few weeks, Google told Time, and modular phones could be in the ands of consumers by the first quarter of 2015.

The devices will utilize a permanent backbone, to be sold by Google, to which different modules created by outside developers can be attached.

"The question was basically, could we do for hardware what Android and other platforms have done for software?" project leader Paul Eremenko told Time. "Which means lower the barrier to entry to such a degree that you could have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of developers as opposed to just five or six big [manufacturers] that could participate in the hardware space."

A tiny personal computer that is worn on the ear and can be controlled with the blink of an eye or the click of a tongue is being tested in Japan.

The 17-gram (0.59-ounce) wireless device has bluetooth capability and is equipped with a GPS, compass, gyro-sensor, battery, barometer, speaker and microphone.

Wearable computing is thought by many commentators to be the next big thing in technology, with products such as Google Glass at the forefront.

The device, known at the moment as the "Earclip-type Wearable PC" has a microchip and data storage, enabling users to load software, said engineer Kazuhiro Taniguchi of Hiroshima City University.

Its designs are based on traditional "ikebana" flower arrangements.

"We have made this with the basic idea that people will wear it in the same way they wear earrings," Taniguchi told AFP in a recent interview as he showcased a black prototype.

The system, which developers are hoping to have ready for Christmas 2015, can be connected to an iPod or other gadget and would allow the user to navigate through software programmes using facial expressions, such as a raised eyebrow, a stuck-out tongue, a wiggle of the nose or by clenching teeth.

The device uses infrared sensors that monitor tiny movements inside the ear, which differ depending on how the eyes and mouth move.

Because the user does not have to move either hand, its developers say it can serve as "a third hand" for everyone from caregivers to rock-climbers, motorbike riders to astronauts, as well as people with disabilities.

"Supposing I climb a mountain, look at the sky at night and see a bright star up there, it could tell me what it is," Taniguchi said.

"As it knows what altitude I'm at, which direction I'm looking and at what angle, it could tell me, 'The bright star you are seeing now is Sirius'."

Using a smartphone to connect to the Internet would mean you could be automatically put in touch with people in faraway places who are doing the same thing as you.

"This could connect you with a person who is looking at the same star at a remote place at the same time," enabling the people to swap impressions, Taniguchi said.

A second version of the device might be pressed into use to help relatives keep an eye on elderly family in greying Japan.

The earpiece, which could also function as a hearing aid, could monitor the wearer's health, including their pulse and body temperature, while logging how often they eat and sneeze, offering early warning of the onset of illness.

An onboard accelerometer could tell when the user falls and instruct the smartphone to pass information to relatives, or call an ambulance based on GPS data.

Tests are being carried out in Hiroshima, with the aim of commercialising the device from April 2016.

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