I speculated last month that PDAs and similar personal electronics might morph into more sophisticated sensor suites...well, it looks like Japanese company NTT DoCoMo has gone well beyond an art project with a greenie message, creating a prototype cellphone which can monitor your health.

Like Nike Inc.'s +Nike technology, the handset also keeps track of jogs, letting users set targets and keeping track of time, distance, and calories burnt - all while listening to music through headphones.

Hold the phone with outstretched arms, and it turns into a mini body fat calculator. A sensor at the top of the phone takes your pulse from your fingertip.

Worried about bad breath? Use the phone's breathalyzer. After Tobita blew on a tiny hole on the side of the handset for about three seconds, the screen flashed, "Not too bad."

The Wellness phone, developed by NTT DoCoMo and Mitsubishi Electric Corp., also asks questions to assesses stress levels and offers advice...

NTT DoCoMo is still testing some of the phone's other technology, including a function to keep track of meals and calculate calorific intake, as well as a networking capacity to let users share data, Tobita said.

No word yet on what sort of liability insurance phone companies will require to cover the inevitable lawsuits when health problems go undiagnosed due to spotty network coverage and calls constantly being dropped.

Posted by T.L. James on October 6, 2007 09:34 PM | TrackBack