Some ideas

Post date: Nov 26, 2008 12:40:02 AM

Microsoft also showed off applications that combine physiological sensors with cell phones. One such application, called MPTrain, combines a heart-rate sensor with a music-tempo analyzer to let runners use music players in their mobile phones to set their workouts. With MPTrain, a user first chooses a workout on the phone that might include two 10-minute periods of intense exercise interspersed with periods of slower exercise. The application then analyzes the music in the user's phone to choose songs based on their tempo and length, matching the chosen workout.

Another cell phone application is for people who suffer from or think they might suffer from sleep apnea. People with sleep apnea repeatedly stop breathing as they sleep, often many times a night, and perhaps for a minute or longer. Wearing a small sensor on a toe that communicates with a mobile phone over Bluetooth, a user could sleep at home and monitor their heart rate and level of oxygen in their blood.

Cell phones could connect to external storage via a phone cradle and connect to the Internet either wirelessly or through broadband wired connections. Fone+ would be targeted at regions such as China, where PC penetration is still low; however, cell phone ownership is high.

Fone+ allows users to take advantage of the increasing power of cell phones. This allows capabilities such as cell phones accessing the Internet with a full keyboard while viewing it on a larger screen.

Your next cell phone, in addition to being a communication tool, may be a friend indeed when you are in need. That’s thanks to the development of the Wireless Safety / Security System (Wi-Via), which can gather and distribute massive amounts of information and send it where it needs to go over the Internet and mobile phone channels.

“A number of convenient, personalized services are possible with these advancements,” said Sean J. Barbeau, a CUTR researcher working with a team developing new computer software applications using “location-based middleware” and “remote method invocation.” According to Barbeau, the next cell phone generation’s Global Positioning System (GPS) will have the capability to determine within three to five meters your position in the event of an emergency. If a hurricane approaches, you can find out if you are in a mandatory evacuation zone. Likewise, bi-directional capabilities, like reverse 911 calls, can alert subscribers that they are in a hurricane evacuation zone as a storm approaches. Or, if you dial 911 and send a picture to a dispatcher, that dispatcher can see the image you have sent and can be in contact with you at the click of a mouse. It will also relay a picture or video to first responders, who will be able to respond more effectively.

Wi-Via technology can also help law enforcement tracking missing children, Barbeau said.

http://www.physorg.com/news80570890.html

http://www.cellphonedigest.net/news/2007/07/microsoft_research_shows_off_f.php