Developers are always making advances in technology that can be put to use by the telecoms and in particular mobile phone industry. We’ve come across a few new inventions over the last week or so and thought we would bring them to your attention

The first development was shown at the CeBit fair in Germany last week and is a device that could enable your mobile phone to lip read. One of my pet hates is people talking loudly on mobile phones on public transport or in public places. People don’t want to hear how wonderful your new boyfriend is or how your Auntie’s pet budgie has just died and left her heartbroken. Hopefully the new technology designed by Professor Schulz could keep these conversations more private.

The technology uses a technique called electromyography, which detects the electrical signals given off in muscles. These signals can be identified and sent to a device which records and amplifies them before sending the signal to a laptop via Bluetooth technology. Software would then translate the pulse into synthesised speech to be broadcast. Trials are at an extremely early stage, but the technique could be adapted for use inside a mobile phone allowing instant communication without the sender actually talking aloud.

This week Nokia have applied for a patent for a battery that is self charging. The battery would use piezoelectric kinetic energy –that’s the body movements you make- to charge itself. So in theory you would be able to go for a walk and your body movements and shaking motions would help charge your phone. We‘re not too sure how long you’d need to run or walk to fully charge a battery , but we bet it will be a lot longer than running for the bus in the morning. We remember Orange having something similar on show in their tent at the Glastonbury Festival last year where you could use kinetic energy to charge your mobile although that wasn’t a battery, more of a charger.

Finally we are proud to announce the arrival of X-Ray vision for mobile phones. What exactly is the use of having X-ray vision on a mobile phone we hear you ask? Well we haven’t a clue to be honest and would like to know too.so answers on a postcard please!

Apparently from what we can gather from the information it’s Nokia (again) and the University of South Australia that have come up with the idea. The application lets mobile phone users see through walls. It works by overlaying graphics on top of real-world video images, so it’s an augmented reality application rather than a “real” X-ray device.

What practical applications this can be used fro we’re not sure. An example of its use is detailed at the website where it says “With Meltvision, you can ‘melt’ away a building in front of you to see whether or not there is an ATM in the street behind it.” We have to say that is pretty cool, but why not just walk round the corner and look? It does look fun though and you can find out nore details and see some videos of the application in action at http://www.magicvisionlab.com/projects.html

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