Using cellphones to fight noise pollution

According to New Scientist, cellphones could soon be used to fight noise pollution.

In a bid to make cities quieter, the European Union requires member states to create noise maps of their urban areas once every five years. Rather than deploying costly sensors all over a city, the maps are often created using computer models that predict how various sources of noise, such as airports and railway stations, affect the areas around them.

Nicolas Maisonneuve of the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris, France, says that those maps are not an accurate reflection of residents' exposure to noise. To get a more precise picture, Maisonneuve's team has developed NoiseTube, a downloadable software app which uses people's smartphones to monitor noise pollution. "The goal was to turn the mobile phone into an environmental sensor," says Maisonneuve.

The app records any sound picked up by the phone's microphone, along with its the GPS location. Users can label the data with extra information, such as the source of the noise, before it is transmitted to NoiseTube's server.

Read full article and more about NoiseTube on their website.

Related, sort of:

-- Cell phones to sense our environment and its pollutants (2009)

-- Cyclists' cellphones help monitor air pollution (2008)

-- Cellphone masts can measure rainfall (2006)

-- Aero Phone measures air pollution (2004)

-- Saving the World With Cell Phones (2005)

-- Cell phones could warn of gas leaks (2003)

-- Phones that detect terrorist attacks (2003)

Cough into your cell phone for a diagnosis

According to The Economic Times, you may soon be able to cough - not in our hand - but in your cell phone to diagnose a cold, a flu or some other respiratory ailment.

A research company that proposes using acoustic vocalization analysis software to measure and interpret cough characteristic of pneumonia has won a $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Read full article.

Related technologies:

-- Siemens working on breathalyzer cellphone

-- Fitness Phone fights fat and bad breath

-- LG’s Cellphone Prevents Drunk Dialing

-- DoCoMo Cell Phone Can Test Whether Drivers Have Been Drinking

Student Invents New Cell Phone Charger Using Bank Notes

This is wild, or at least I think it is because I don't understand it. According to the Sierra Express, Emmanuel James, a Sierra Leonean student from the Makeni Polytechnic Institution, has invented a device that charges mobile phones without electricity.

James discovered that local bank notes (Leones), can be used together with two component circuits in between the two circuit’s poles terminal to produce electricity.

Turning a Cellphone Into a Microscope

Assistant professor of electrical engineering Dr Aydogan Ozcan has developed special software and adapted cellphones to substitute for microscopes and diagnose diseases. The New York Times reports.

The adapted phones may be used for screening in places far from hospitals, technicians or diagnostic laboratories.

... In one prototype, a slide holding a finger prick of blood can be inserted over the phone’s camera sensor. The sensor detects the slide’s contents and sends the information wirelessly to a hospital or regional health center.

Read full article.

Related:

-- Phone gadget to diagnose disease - CellScope developped by California Berkeley researchers, works as a so-called fluorescence microscope that can identify the markers of disease.

Cell-All Could Put Chemical Sensors Everywhere

New technology that would add chemical sensing capabilities to cell phones has been developed by three researchers as first-generation laboratory prototypes that will be demonstrated at the San Diego State University Regional Technology Center on Tuesday October 27. OH&S reports.

This program, named Cell-All, "is designed to provide greater detection capabilities in areas where people congregate," according to the announcement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate. "The concept allows for chemical agent detectors to ultimately be everywhere where there are cellular telephones.

At the option of the cell phone owner, the GPS in the phone could provide sensor location information to emergency operation centers. While still years from implementation, researchers are working on the proof of concept before attempting full-scale miniaturization. This demonstration will provide a look at the state of the science to date."

Related:

-- Radiation detectors in your cell phone (2008) - Purdue University is developing sensors which fit inside a cell phone that can detect radiation, and thus perhaps stop the detonation of a nuclear bomb by terrorists is a bit outlandish to my way of thinking.

-- Saving the World With Cell Phones (2005) - As cell phones evolve to include souped-up games, streaming video and MP3 players, some University of California at Berkeley professors and graduate students want to slip a pollution detector into the mix.

-- Phones that detect terrorist attacks (2003) - A newly opened research center at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA is developing a cell phone that can also detect "dirty bombs" by containing detectors that then upload their information to a central database.

-- PCell phone could warn of gas leaks (2003) - A mobile phone able to warn against fire, leakage of methane or other types of toxic gas has been submitted to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office for patent.

-- 2003: Cell Phones - For so much more than just talking ... And down the road, research is working on cell phones which can warn of gas leaks (thanks to sensors that verify changes in the atmosphere) and cell phones that will be able to warn about the presence of bacteria and viruses (thanks to bio-sensors) or detect dirty bombs (thanks to detectors that can upload information to a central database).

Japan debut for mobile fuel cell

An alternative to batteries that uses methanol and water to recharge gadgets is to go on sale in Japan, according to the BBC.

The Dynario fuel cell Made by Toshiba can triple the battery life of portable gadgets such as mobile phones and music players.

Toshiba said the cell was ready to power gadgets about 20 seconds after it was fuelled with methanol. It estimated that each fill up produces enough power to recharge two mobile phones. Power is transferred via a USB cable.

Read full article and Toshiba news release.

Universal phone charger standard approved

ITU has given its stamp of approval to an energy-efficient one-charger-fits-all new mobile phone solution.

The announcement comes as ITU lobbies hard to have the essential role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) recognized in the draft Copenhagen Agreement as a key part of the solution towards mitigating climate change.

Every mobile phone user will benefit from the new Universal Charging Solution (UCS), which enables the same charger to be used for all future handsets, regardless of make and model. In addition to dramatically cutting the number of chargers produced, shipped and subsequently discarded as new models become available, the new standard will mean users worldwide will be able to charge their mobiles anywhere from any available charger, while also reducing the energy consumed while charging.

ITU Newsroom via Twitter/raphaelhunold and Twitter/kiwanja

Samsung's latest environmental phone launches in Sweden

Spotted on the Independent, Samsung's new S7550 Blue Earth cell phone, integrating environmental awareness.

Launching in Sweden this month and due in other European and Asian countries later on, the Blue Earth has a casing sourced primarily from recycled water bottles, a solar panel covering the back of the phone, a 3inch touch screen, wi-fi, and fully featured software.

Read full article.

A new future with solar mobiles

For millions of people in Africa and Asia, with no connection to electricity grids or unreliable and expensive power access, t solar-powered gadgets are proving to be revolutionary. stuff reports.

... Solar cell phones could build on the economic advantages that mobile phones have already brought to far-flung regions of Africa and the Indian subcontinent, including price transparency and more accurate and timely information.

Mobile phone penetration in these regions has been held back by a lack of electricity: there is simply no way to charge a cell phone in many rural areas of developing countries.

An estimated 1.6 billion people have no access to electricity at all, while another 1 billion people have no electricity for much of the day, according to estimates by development groups.

Fortuitously, perhaps, most of these people live in sunny climates. And this is where solar mobile phones come in.

Read full article.

Cell-phone Simulator Helps Coordinate an Outfit

Choosing and buying clothes via a cell phone is getting easier in Japan with the launch of a new service called EZ MyStyling launched by Mobile carrier KDDI that allows shoppers to simulate an outfit before they buy. PC World reports.

The service is aimed at women and runs as a Flash application in the phone handset. Shoppers are presented with a digital model to which clothes can be added and removed to coordinate a complete look.

In a video demonstration, the customer can choose between different tops, outer wear, bottoms and shoes. The hair style can be short, long or a bob, and in some simulations the model's appearance can be changed, to make them taller or heavier, for example.

More details on each of the items, such as colors, sizes and prices, appear on a second screen. Once the desired items are found it is easy to order the entire ensemble with a few button clicks on the cell phone.

Read full article.

Microsoft's Windows phones hit the market

After months of talking about Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft is announcing on Tuesday that the first crop of phones to carry the Windows Phone brand are ready to hit the market.

A host of new phones running the new operating system are expected to debut between now and the holidays, with many being announced later on Tuesday.

[via News.com]

Apple Looks to Patent Cutting Users Off From Cell Phone Features

Apple has long locked users out of features on its popular iPhone.

The company has so much experience in denying users of hardware and software supported features that it decided to patent the concept. The Cupertino giant, filed a patent seeking to claim the rights to technology locking users out of features.

[via The Daily Tech]

Winter Jacket Warms and Charges Your Gadgets

Mountain Hardware has developed a winter jacket with a heating element that will keep you toasty while it charges your gadgets.

[via Gadget Wise Blog]

Other clothing items that recharge cell phones:

-- Wearable Flexible Solar Panel Vest for Boda Boda operators

-- Solar Jacket Charges Gadgets on the Run

-- Solar Power hand bags and golf bags

-- Solar Power bikini

-- Solar power devices recharge while byciling

-- A charger bra for your cell phone

Fuel Cell Mobile Phone Recharger from Taiwan

Taiwanese researchers have built a new mobile-phone recharger based on fuel cell technology they say will cost little once manufacturing partners are on board, reports Reuters.

The real innovation by ITRI is the fuel for the recharger, plasticized solid-state hydrogen. The plastic is soft enough that it can be shaped to suit the needs of different devices. It's designed to react with water to release the hydrogen to a fuel cell to produce electricity.

Wind-up mobile targets developing regions

Spencer Kelly on the BBC looks at a mobile phone with an integrated wind-up charger which could be useful for people without access to a power supply.

Wind-up chargers which plug in to an electronic device are quite common but this is a first, and its developers think it could find a market in developing regions like India and Africa.

Read Deleted SMS Messages

Freee Partition Repair, a leading data recovery company, has just launched software that can retrieve deleted text messages.

Read full press release.

Earphones with capacitive sensing technology

Sony Ericsson has announced a pair of inner-ear headphones that know when you're using them. PC Pro reports.

According to Sony Ericsson, the MH907 headphones use capacitive technology to start the music when you insert both headphones into your ears.

Removing one of the earbuds will pause the music, while reinserting it will cause the music to resume - all without the need to touch the controller, which could be useful for those gasped conversations on the treadmill.

Read full article.

Mobile app sees science go global

A mobile phone application will help professional and "citizen" scientists collect and analyse data from "in the field", anywhere in the world, reports the BBC.

The EpiCollect software collates data from certain mobiles - on topics such as disease spread or the occurrence of rare species - in a web-based database.

The data is statistically analysed and plotted on maps that are instantly available to those same phones.

The software has been developed for so-called smartphones that run Google's Android open-source operating system.

The approach is outlined in the open-access journal PLoS ONE.

Read BBC full article.

"EpiCollect: Linking Smartphones to Web Applications for Epidemiology, Ecology and Community data collection." PLoS One, 16 September 2009.

Polaris: Mobile phone robot

Mobile phone giant KDDI has teamed up with Tokyo-based Flower Robotics to develop a new concept mobile phone/robot system designed to monitor and learn the user’s behavior and communicate via a home TV set. Pink Tentacle reports.

Called “Polaris,” the prototype system consists of a mobile handset that monitors the user’s daily activities and an artificially intelligent robot sphere that charges the handset and displays data on the user’s TV.

The Polaris system is designed to learn the user’s lifestyle by collecting data, analyzing activity, and identifying trends. The robot keeps a database of information accumulated through the handset, such as the user’s daily travel and walking habits, calls and email messages sent and received, and online transactions. Using this data, Polaris learns to predict the user’s behavior and offer relevant advice and information.

Wearable Flexible Solar Panel Vest for Boda Boda operators

AfriGadget reports on a solar vest that recharges mobile phones worn by Boda Boda operators, bicycle riders that carry passengers from main roads to villages off the beaten track in Western Kenya.

Wearing Flexible Panels while cycling generates power from sun-up to sun-down, an average of 12 hours a day.

.. The Panel can be attached in a variety of ways. Velcro, Pop Buttons or simply attach Rucksack like straps so it can be worn with any garment. In the latter case the small pouch containing the controller and battery is attached to the back of the panels with Velcro.

Related:

-- Solar Jacket Charges Gadgets on the Run

-- Solar Power hand bags and golf bags

-- Solar Power bikini

-- Solar power devices recharge while byciling

-- A charger bra for your cell phone

Telefonica O2 Ireland offers Block It service

This sounds useful. Users can block bullying messages with the O2 Ireland's new Block It service. 160caracters.org reports.

The free service allows O2 customers to block unwanted SMS and MMS messages from other mobile phone numbers from any Irish mobile network.

The Block It Service can restrict text messages that are sent from standard mobile and landline numbers and up to a maximum of 100 specific numbers can be blocked at any one time.

The service however does NOT restrict the receipt of marketing and PSMS from five digit short code numbers and O2 advises users to use the STOP command to stop those. Voice calls cannot be blocked with the service.

Europe invests in superfast mobile phones

Sweden and Norway aim to become the first European nations to offer turbocharged mobile phones services, allowing consumers to download content from the internet on the go one hundred times faster than on the fastest existing network.

[via Just Another Mobile Phone Blog]

Cell Phone screens to be Smudge Free

Scientists have discovered the secret to easing one of the great frustrations of the millions who use smart phones, portable media players and other devices with touch- screens: Reducing their tendency to smudge and cutting glare fro­m sunlight. Cellular News reports.

In a report today at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, they describe development of a test for performance of such smudge- and reflection-resistant coatings and its use to determine how to improve that performance.

Safaricom launches solar-powered mobile phone

A solar-powered mobile phone has been launched by Kenyan­ mobile network operator, Safaricom, reports Renewable Energy.

Called Simu ya Solar, the handset has been made by them from recycled materials and it posses an in-built solar panel.

This solar-charged phone will come in handy specifically in the rural parts where there is no grid electricity and even in urban areas, it is specially for those who are keen on saving on phone maintenance costs.

Related:

-- Mobile screens become solar cells

-- Solar powered cell phones in China by April 2007

-- Solar-powered cellphone in the works at NTTDoCoMo

-- Germany's Solar Powered Mobile Phone

Tiny 'MEMS' Devices to Filter, Amplify Electronic Signals

Researchers are developing a new class of tiny mechanical devices containing vibrating, hair-thin structures that could be used to filter electronic signals in cell phones and for other more exotic applications. Cellular News reports.

Because the devices, called resonators, vibrate in specific patterns, they are able to cancel out signals having certain frequencies and allow others to pass.

Such filters are critical for cell phones and other portable electronics because they allow devices to process signals with minimal interference and maximum transmission efficiency.

... In addition to their use as future cell phone filters, such resonators also could be used for advanced chemical and biological sensors in medical and homeland-defense applications and possibly for a new type of "mechanical memory element" that harnesses vibration patterns to store information.

Read full article.

Nissan Dials IPhone for Car Remote Control

Nissan has developed a prototype iPhone application that would allow electric car owners to dial into their vehicles and check battery levels. PC World reports.

Using it, owners will be able to monitor charging of their cars while away from the vehicles. The system could come in handy, for example, when cars are parked at public charging stations and owners want to fully charge the batteries before driving away.

In addition to the basic monitoring of battery level, more detailed information can be sent to the phone that includes the time required for a full charge and the approximate cost.

Read full article.

Pedal power for Kenya's mobiles

Two Kenyan students are hoping to market a device that allows bicycle riders to charge their mobile phones. The BBC reports.

Jeremiah Murimi, 24, and Pascal Katana, 22, said they wanted their dynamo-powered "smart charger" to help people without electricity in rural areas.

People have to travel great distances to shops where they are charged $2 a time to power their phone, usually from a car battery or solar panel.

"The device is so small you can put it in your pocket with your phone while you are on your bike," said Mr Murimi. It takes an our of pedaling to charge a phone completely.

Read full article.

Related:

-- Motorola to release a bicycle-powered cellphone charger

Stun gun disguised as cellphone

According to Stuff, Police investigating reports of a drunken youth in Melbourne's west uncovered a stun gun disguised as a cellphone.

Police say the device, found last Thursday and acquired from overseas, looked like a cellphone but had a stun gun attached to it.

The phone/stun gun, branded as the Immobiliser, can be bought online for US$51 (NZ$78) but the manufacturer warns that they are illegal in Australia.

The weapons is a 900k-volt stun gun in the shape of mobile.

Previously: - A Cell Phone Stun Gun

Cell phone doubles up as a cigarette lighter

Spotted on engadget:mobile and most gadget blogs, this "lighter phone" from China's Seabright.

Hard to tell if it's the same cell phone/cigarette lighter spotted by the mobuzzTV team at the Salon International des Inventions held in Geneva in 2005.

Google patents Ringback advertising

A patent assigned to Google describes how the search giant can monetize its Voice service: play ads while a call is dialing or placed on hold. arstechnica reports.

The patent application, called "Ringback Advertising," is assigned to Google. In general terms, it describes a system for delivering ads to any sort of phone system, including IP, cellular, or landline phones. The idea is to place software somewhere within the flow of telephony data that can identify when a given call is not active, then request audio ads for delivery during that time. Although this obviously pairs nicely with Google's Voice service, there's no reason it couldn't be rolled out to telcos that choose to partner with the search giant.

Read full article.