DMFCs produce electricity from a reaction of methanol, water, and air—the only by-products are a small amount of water vapor and carbon dioxide. Japanese wireless carrier, KDDI, has combined the fuel cell with a Lithium Ion battery to better handle the phone's spikes in power demand.

This combination gives the prototype phone about 320 hours of power. That's around 3 days longer than an equivalent handset. And instead of taking an hour or so to recharge, a few squirts of methanol only takes seconds. Right now the prototype is thicker than we demand of today's phones, but the two companies hope the technology will eventually make it into portable gadgets like phones and media players.

Of course, Toshiba promised to start selling a DMFC battery charger by September, and there's still no sign of it. Good to see they're making inroads, though. It's pretty interesting tech. [PC World and DVICE]

The Polaris really looks like a multimedia cell phone that was gently placed into a rolling dock (yea, I know we are all thinking Sony's Rolly). But it could do a lot more than follow you around and play your tunes. Apparently it can monitor its owner's health, process diet data and record physical activity. Like your own personal nutritionist/annoying friend. According to CrunchGear it was jointly developed with robotics firm Flower Robotics who also conceived this mannequin bot.

Crunchgear scored this club remix video of the phonebot:

I bet this robot would have told me about 10 minutes ago that I should stop eating cookies for breakfast. Honestly, I'd get annoyed with the little twerp. [KDDI Polaris via CrunchGear]

There's not much of a space for a product like this now, since cellphones account for most of the devices with MicroSD storage, and they generally have some kind of data connection anyway. But it's easy to imagine a (near) future where traditional SD cards are considered too bulky for smaller point-and-shoot cameras and camcorders, and a wireless MicroSD card would make sense. [Tech-on]

The porn aficionados, or Jason Chens as they're known in the States, are causing the Japanese online porn industry to grow at 1,000 new customers a day with some people paying up to $105 to get on board.

Consider this a peek into the near future here in the US. When more people get phones with data plans that are able to download video, the exact same thing will happen here, just with less mosiacs and cartoons. People love their porn, after all. [Bloomberg via The Register]

Motorola Clarifies KDDI "au BOX" based on KreaTV platform for set-top devices, not Android.

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) would like to clarify that contrary to some recent reports, the set tops supplied to KDDI by Motorola to deliver the operator's "au BOX" service are not based on Android. The platform used is in fact Motorola's KreaTV platform for set tops which is based on Linux and there are no plans to produce an Android-based version.

The "au BOX" service allows mobile customers to transfer content between their home entertainment systems and their mobile devices. Motorola's KreaTV™ open software platform for set-top devices is designed to enable operator customers to easily add new functionality and services at any time, allowing the system to grow according to their business needs and customer demands. KreaTV is compatible with a wide range of OS middleware and Digital Rights Management (DRM), and supports multiple different video formats ranging from MPEG-2 SD to H.264 HD, DVR, and hybrid.

The powerful multimedia set top also offers video encoding capabilities to allow users to upload video from their personal video recorders and then transfer it to a mobile handset. It can also play DVDs when linked to an external monitor. The set top can additionally serve as a portal for internet web browsing, enabling users to access a wide range services and user generated content in addition to the option of purchasing music and video content from online stores.

We've been told from the start that Android—essentially just a lightweight Linux distribution—would make its way to a variety of devices aside from cellphones, but most people took that to mean we'd see Google's mobile OS on netbooks, tablets or MIDs. Those are coming, but it looks like Motorola, with this unexpected use, could beat them all out of the gate.

As for the box: It's a simple set-top unit with an emphasis on mobility. What that means, other than small size, is that the box has integrated speakers, a wide variety of connectors and even an internal optical drive that can play DVDs or rip CDs to the device's hard drive. It's Japan-only and won't arrive until CEATEC in October, at least, but it's interesting too see just how wide Android's applications are, in practice. [Android Guys via CNET]

A project including the joint efforts of NTT, KDDI and SoftBank, Japan's big three wireless carriers, data lines were actually run aside the entire track and use periodic wireless transmitters to connect to passengers.

From inside the train, users should enjoy speeds of 2Mbps even through tunnels, while those waiting at station concourses will be blessed with speeds up to 54Mbps (which happens to be the peak speed of wireless n routers, or about 6 times the speed of the only DSL service to offer wiring in my apartment building). [CrunchGear and Getty]

Ed note: Technically this shot is from China, but shhh, I just liked it.

The Premier 3 is part of Japanese phone company KDDI's Spring 2009 line-up and it features a beautiful 3" (480×854l) display, 3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, GPS, Infrared and a dedicated remote control. If you want to rip music from a CD, all you need to do is plug the player into the remote via a 3.5mm plug and you are good to go.

With such a large screen and MP3 capability, you would think that the Premier 3 has the potential to be an awesome portable media player—but Sony Ericsson inexplicably shot themselves in the foot with a MicroSD slot that can only handle 2GB cards (there is only 50MB onboard). What a waste. Pricing and release information have not been announced. [Impress via Newlaunches and Akihabara News]

Well, for what it is, at least. there have been smaller gimmick phones for quite some time, but none with a solid featureset like this. As a Walkman phone, it comes with 4GB of flash memory, a well-tested and usable media player interface, and when closed, illuminated touch controls on the bottom front bezel. A Japan-only handset for now, you can also expect mobile TV and integrated domestic music stores.

The only obvious problem with a phone like this is, well, using it. Derek Zoolander's halcyon tiny-phone-toting days came before we were all texting each other like crazy, an experience I can't imagine being too enjoyable on the Xmini. [Akihabara]

The Hitachi Wooo W63H and Casio Exilim W63CA both came with 3.1-inch organic electro-luminescent screens and the ability to sync up with au BOX and Lismo Video (which lets you download full movies onto your handset). The Casio Exilim also boasts an 8.1MP camera, making it a pretty good point-and-shoot replacement.

Sharp Aquos' model beats out the Hitachi and Casio on screen size (3.5-inches), even if it's not OEL. While the battery life is probably shorter, those .4-inches could make a big difference if you're a big TV-on-the-cellphone watcher.

Sony Ericcson's re fashion phone kind of reminds me of the Nokia I owned in High School, only its interchangeable fashion plates are much nicer. Right now, you can buy soon-to-be-dated 007 and Fifa World Cup themed plates.

The Toshiba W65T is a sportsy slider that includes, along with the au BOX connectivity and LISMO movie viewing, a Wireless Music option and GPS.

The last three phones in the line up are, more simplistic fashion phones. I guess not everybody's enamored with a handset that has more features than you can shake a stick at. Though the Kyocera W65K, SE W64S and Panasonic W62P (left to right) eschew LISMO and au BOX, they still come with the Karada Manager.

Even if none of KDDI's lineup makes it outside the Land of the Rising Sun, some of these features will probably trickle to the States a couple years down the line. [au by KDDI via Gizmodo Japan]

It seems like the perfect software for the laziest people in the world, but it's one of those "oh wow" things that will make everyone smile when using it.

Breakthrough Visual Search Engine for Mobile Phones Takes Off Big in Japan

Pasadena, CA & Tokyo, Japan - April 17, 2008 - Evolution Robotics Inc., a leading robotics technology company, in partnership with Bandai Networks Co. Ltd, Japan's leading mobile content provider, announced today that KDDI Corporation is including the "ER Search" visual search engine on its new Spring 2008 "au™" line of camera phones, and has made it available for download for any KDDI customer with a prior "au" camera phone. This launch marks a dramatic expansion in the market for mobile visual search, which will enable millions of consumers in Japan alone to do online searches by taking pictures of everyday objects with their camera phone.

The deployment of this technology in the mass market also opens up an entirely new range of categories of services for mobile marketing, which is already projected to grow to $24 Billion worldwide by 2013. (Source: ABI Research)

ER Search is a mobile search engine operated by Bandai Networks and powered by Evolution Robotics' ViPR visual pattern recognition system. It works essentially like using a traditional search engine, but without having to type any text or go through complicated menus. Instead, users simply snap a picture of something they're interested in and immediately get back relevant content, all in the palm of the hands.

As an example, KDDI customers will be able to take a picture of a music CD that would return links relating to the artist, hear clips from the album and purchase songs to download on their phone. If they are shopping for wine in a store, they can take a picture of the wine label and get expert reviews and recommendations on the spot. Or, if they are browsing through a catalog and see an item they'd like to buy, they can order it immediately by snapping a picture of the item on the page.

"ER Search is an entirely new way for connecting consumers with content and companies," said Satoshi Oshita, CEO of Bandai Networks. "Because ER Search runs on mobile phones, searches happen when and where the customer is, as soon as they see something that they're interested in. Additionally, the fact that a customer simply has to click a picture of a product or advertisement, makes the search process far easier and immediate than anything that has been available before."

"We are very pleased to be working with Bandai Networks and are excited to see the momentum building in the Japanese market," said Paolo Pirjanian, President and CEO of Evolution Robotics. "Our mission is to take aerospace-grade technologies and make them affordable for mass market applications, and ER Search is a great example. We see this as just the start of a growing market for visual search in Asia and other parts of the globe and are actively working with our partners to expand the range of services that can benefit consumers and companies alike."

Bandai Networks had already deployed ER Search on over one million phones in Japan in 2007. With this deployment with KDDI, the number of users with access to ER Search will expand by millions more in a very short time, making it even more compelling for companies and advertisers to participate in the service.

About ViPR

The ViPR technology easily supports user-generated content so that users can take new pictures of objects, images, videos or even locations and tag them with links and content to expand the database. That content will then show up in the results returned to other users who take similar pictures, thus creating a robust world-wide visual database for communities to develop and access. (A video demonstration of Evolution Robotics' visual search technology running on Apple's iPhone can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/user/EvolutionRobotics)

ER Search's versatility rests in Evolution Robotics' breakthrough ViPR visual recognition technology. ViPR is able to learn new objects and images on the fly (such as the cover art on a music CD), without the need for any special encoding such as barcodes or watermarks. Just as significant, ViPR performs well on low cost components such as the cameras used on most mobile phones today, even when lighting and other visual conditions are poor.

For the music search application alone, Bandai Networks has over 150,000 music CD covers already indexed in their database. Other mobile marketing and mobile commerce applications include providing content and links for print ads, book covers, DVDs, product packaging, movie posters, retail displays, business signs, etc. Even animation, streaming video or images from live TV can be supported.

[Evolution via Mobile Whack]

(P.S. Did you know that KDDI is Japan's second largest cellphone service provider?)

From what I can tell, all it does to determine if something is pirated is to see if it was produced "professionally," which seems as a really crappy litmus test for piracy. I mean, people put professional video online all the time with complete legitimacy. Nonetheless, I'm sure we'll see something like this hitting YouTube sooner rather than later. At which point everyone will head over to DailyMotion or Vimeo or whatever other site will be too lazy to implement this technology. Check the press release after the jump.

Saitama, Japan - October 29, 2007 - KDDI R&D LABS today announced that it has developed a new content protection technology which enables pirated video content detection by distinguishing between the content created by a professional and the content created by an amateur. This technology has been developed in consideration of the situation that while the number of users on video-sharing sites such as YouTube™ is increasing rapidly, copyrighted video clips have been illegally uploaded, e.g. TV programs. Up to now, in order to find pirated video clips on video-sharing sites, a human has to check by visual inspection. Then if pirated videos are found on the sites, copyright holders need to request the video-sharing site operators to delete them, which requires so much labor. Recently some video-sharing site operators implement a pirated video blocker based on fingerprint, which is a set of features for identifying video content. In fingerprinting technology, however, copyright holders have to identify copyrighted videos and provide operators with the copyrighted videos and the necessary information, while video- sharing site operators have to register fingerprints of the copyrighted videos in advance.

Moreover, it is very hard to keep following explosively increasing video clips which are newly uploaded day after day. KDDI R&D LABS' technology focuses on differences between a professional and an amateur in terms of their video capturing devices, their video capturing techniques, their video creation processes, and so on. With KDDI R&D LABS' proprietary technology, visual and audio features which are affected by these differences are analyzed, and then it enables to distinguish between video content created by a professional and video content created by an amateur; a very high distinction rate of 98% is achieved. Using this technology, illegal video clips can be automatically and reliably found on the vast amount of video content, which significantly reduces labor costs for eliminating pirated videos. In addition, since KDDI R&D LABS' technology analyzes features of the content itself, there is no need to register pirated videos in the database beforehand, and furthermore, it is effective for new video clips which have never been uploaded so far. This technology can be implemented as a video content inspection engine, which is installable on video sharing servers. Upon being uploaded, a video clip will be inspected and if it is suspected as a pirated video clip, it will be rejected. This protects copyrights of video content.

In a hands-on with the system, the team at CScout Japan noted that the setup was easy to use and they were surprised at the quality of data. Naturally, this technology is not quite ready for prime time, but if further tests prove successful, it may pop up in a strip joint near you sometime in the not too distant future. Think of the possibilities. [CScoutJapan]

One thing that surprised me about Japanese cellphones is how boxy and not-that-thin they all are. Almost everybody has the same type of phone, a rectangular flip phone, and none of them are as thin as something like the Helio Fin. Instead, due to features such as DMB mobile TV reception, they require bulkier batteries as to provide longer life. While I was expecting a wonderland of super-thin, amazingly-featured phones, I'm actually pretty underwhelmed. Sure, being able to watch mobile TV is kind of nice, but the TV stations here kind of suck. I'd rather have a thinner phone than DMB TV service.

And why aren't there more unique designs here? These futuristic concepts are pretty cool, but they're just concepts. I see much more variety on the streets of NYC, where I see smartphones, candybars, sliders and flip phones. On the subways here, it's 90% boxy flip phones. I've seen maybe one smartphone since I arrived. What gives?

In addition, another thing I didn't realize about the Japanese cellphone market is that most of the services only include access to walled gardens rather than full-on internet access. Sure, full web access is available if you've got a Crackberry or something like that, but the fees are astronomical when compared with service charges in the States.

I never thought I'd say this before coming to Japan, but we have cooler phones in America. There are just more diverse choices and we get better services (as long as you don't care about watching live TV). Consider me unimpressed.

Although it may seem like an unlikely concept, if it's going to happen anywhere then it's going to happen in Japan. [Just Another Mobile Phone Blog]

Yes, KDDI Mobile is coming to the US. And no, they won't be bringing any of their cool phones with them.

They will operate as a virtual operator using Sprint's CDMA network, but they will only cater to Japanese- speaking people over here. I don't know if this will significantly expand their existing 28.2-million user base, but with phone offerings like the bah Sanyo 2400 and the smleh LG 225, who cares? Nothing to see here folks, please drive thru. – Jesus Diaz

Japan's KDDI To Launch MVNO in the USA [Cellular News]

Design Page [via yanko]
Designer Page

The Media Skin, however, comes in black, orange, and white, has a QVGA screen, and some various other features we can't quite make out because we don't read Japanese. Point is, design projects actually do make it out sometimes—at least in Japan.

More shots after the jump.

– Jason Chen

Design Page [KDDI via MetroSexualDesires - Thanks Bob!]
[and Digital World Tokyo - Thanks Mark.]

Japan [Gizmodo]

au Design Project neon [Product Page (via mocoloco]

Japan's KDDI unveils phones with digital TV, chat [Reuters]

Oh, and they also released the W32S, a very pink and plasticky number that's been designed for all the laydeez. Or dudes that like pink. It should also be noted that these are the first non-DoCoMo handsets that have FeliCa contactless payment technology, which is quickly becoming Japan's standard. — CL

KDDI W32H [Akihabara News]
KDDI W32S[K-Tai Watch (Japanese)]