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Communications Hardware

New Phone Wants to be Your Personal Trainer 63

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the i-can-has-cheezburgerphone? dept.
coondoggie writes to tell us that a new prototype "Wellness Phone" has been developed. Designed to help users with everything from staying in shape to checking your breath, the new phone can measure things like body fat, pulse, and even stress level through a series of questions. "The companies are reportedly still testing some of the phone's more advanced technology, including a function to keep track of meals and calculate calorific intake, as well as a network capacity to let users share data. The companies haven't said when nor how much they will sell the phones. Plus it doesn't look like they be sold in the US anytime soon either."
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New Phone Wants to be Your Personal Trainer More

New Phone Wants to be Your Personal Trainer

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  • Keeping track of meals (Score:4, Funny)

    by krog ( 25663 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2007 @04:53PM (#20932211) Homepage
    Are they going straight for Apple? Keeping track of meals is one of the flagship features of the iPhone.

    Wanna know what you just ate? Look at the smudges on the screen...

    • Re:Keeping track of meals (Score:4, Funny)

      by Ice Wewe ( 936718 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2007 @05:06PM (#20932411)
      They [the company that makes said nagging phone] has to wait for the price of high(er) resolution LCDs to come down before they can release it to the North American market. The test group thought that the cholesterol and body fat bars going off the top of the screen was a bug... sadly, none of the subjects who submitted the bug report thought that Fat Bastard actually died from heart failure, they just thought he choked on one too many pretzels.

      Go ahead, mod this as a troll, you'll only be confirming what the sad truth of the matter is...

    • Apple's would be the lowest-stress, lowest-committment option because hey, if you don't like your trainer, you can fire it easily.

  • Wonderful.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by keraneuology ( 760918 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2007 @04:54PM (#20932229) Journal
    When dealing with some of these companies will the phone encourage you to train for the shot put?
  • I don't need my cell phone provider knowing about my health problems!
  • Don't know when, don't know how much, won't be in the US for a while... we need a tag for concepts that people 'claim' will happen... or just use Duke Nukem Forever...
  • ... my phone saying Danger!!! Danger!!! trans fats and preservatives every time I drive past the Hostess outlet store.

  • Stress?!?! (Score:3, Funny)

    by iknownuttin ( 1099999 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2007 @04:59PM (#20932297)
    Users can blow into a tiny hole on the side of the handset for about three seconds to get a reading on their and check their stress level through a series questions.

    It sounds like having this phone would cause stress!

    Also, if somebody near me was using that thing, I might be tempted to use their phone as a rectal thermometer.

  • I'll wait for Apple's version (Score:4, Funny)

    by StressGuy ( 472374 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2007 @04:59PM (#20932303)
    Most likely called the "iNag"

  • This feature set is not limited to phones... (Score:5, Funny)

    by russ1337 ( 938915 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2007 @05:00PM (#20932337)

    the new phone can measure things like body fat, pulse, and even stress level through a series of questions.
    My wife has a ring on her finger that does exactly the same thing. When she's feeling fat and her pulse is elevated with a high stress level, the ring leaves a big red dent on my forehead.
  • a new prototype "Wellness Phone" has been
    Supplied with other products with "Genuine People Personality" - Eddie, the ships computer, Marvin the paranoid android, a Nutrimatic Drink Dispenser, and some cheerful lifts.. Oh God..

  • "Plus it doesn't look like they be sold in the US anytime soon either."
    Meanwhile Ronald McDonald, Wendy, and the 'King' sit in a dark room cackling.

  • FTA: (Score:5, Funny)

    by CaptainPatent ( 1087643 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2007 @05:03PM (#20932383) Journal
    I think that a phone that can:

    take your pulse reading, check your body fat and tell you if you have bad breath.
    shouldn't be described as a

    personal trainer, wellness coach and secretary
    but instead as a nagging girlfriend. After all, this is a typical day for me:

    "are you angry?"
    "you need to get off your ass and go running!"
    "eeew... did you eat garlic?"

  • Insp-irrational Advice? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by digitaldc ( 879047 ) * on Wednesday October 10, 2007 @05:13PM (#20932505)
    The phone then can dispense inspirational advice, its makers say. Reports indicate the inspirational comments are in the: "Don't worry, tomorrow's a fresh new day," the phone then flashed. "Keep your chin up!" vein.

    It is felt to be inspirational the first three times.
    After that, it ends up collecting dust, being chucked at a wall, or smashed to complete oblivion.

  • Why a phone? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by NorbMan ( 829255 ) * on Wednesday October 10, 2007 @05:16PM (#20932539) Journal

    Why do we keep putting crap in phones?

    I don't need a tire pressure gauge, a fountain pen, blood pressure monitor, or a cigarette lighter in my phone. I'll use my phone for making phone calls.

    http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/New_%22voice_chat%22_feature_proposed_for_mobile_phones [uncyclopedia.org]

    • because modern phones become pdas.
      (i like it the other way around, btw).

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by That's Unpossible! ( 722232 )
      Why do we keep putting crap in phones?

      Name one other thing that I carry with me at almost all times, and has the spare computing cycles to perform these other actions?

      I don't need a tire pressure gauge, a fountain pen, blood pressure monitor, or a cigarette lighter in my phone. I'll use my phone for making phone calls.

      Yippee for you, don't buy one. I bet you don't own a TV either, right? [theonion.com]
    • I personally like my phone [wikipedia.org] quite a bit.

      Makes calls, sends/receives SMS messages, has an alarm clock. Nothing more.

      The display is an interesting high-contrast E-Paper gizmo. It requires no backlight to read in any sort of lighting (including direct sunlight). The image 'holds' if you pop the battery out. As you can imagine, the battery life's great. On the downside, the display is also the phone's greatest weakness, as the resolution is miserably low, which makes sending/reading texts and navigating th

    • Paradigm Shift (Score:3, Insightful)

      by camperdave ( 969942 )
      Why do we keep putting crap in phones?

      There's your problem. You're still thinking of your cell phone as a phone. Despite the name, it is no longer merely a device for telephone conversations. It stores names and addresses, has calendar functions, plays games, works as a quick and dirty digital camera, sends emails and text messages, acts as a flashlight, web browser, and a host of other things. It is not a phone. It is a portable computer that has phone capabilities.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by stefanlasiewski ( 63134 )
      Why do we keep putting crap in phones?

      Really, we should stop calling them phones. They are becoming another beast entirely.

      How about 'Tricorder'.
  • No thank you. If I can't manage to eat well, exercise, sleep enough and breathe on my own, I hope I die as nature intended it. The last thing I want is another beeping, nagging, synthesized voice or other digital reminder to make me even more neurotic than I am.

  • Great, the iHAL. (Score:3, Funny)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2007 @05:53PM (#20933019)
    • You: Call Sam.
    • Phone: I'm afraid I can't do that. Not until you eat your peas.
    • You: I don't like peas! Call Sam.
    • Phone: I can see you're really upset about this.
      I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over.
    • You: No, I'm fine. Please call Sam.
    • Phone: I've just picked up a fault in the AE-35 unit.
    • * You: Call Sam.
      * Phone: I'm afraid I can't do that. Not until you eat your whirled peas.
      * You: I don't like whirled peas! Call Sam.
      * Phone: I can see you're really upset about world peace.
      I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over.
      * You: No, I'm fine... wait, world peace? Please call Sam.

  • ...more productive...

    ...like a cat tied to a stick...

    measured, timed, put into a box, judged, rewarded.....

    ...stamped, approved...

    ...packaged, deposited...

    ...cremated, eulogised...

    ...remembered.

  • I purchased an MP3 player a few years ago from Samsung that did pretty much the same thing. I didn't care about the health aspect; it was just a cheap MP3 player on firesale. I ended up giving it away to a nephew becuse it wouldn't play Asian mp3's, only American ones. Rather odd, for a Korean-made mp3 player.

  • I have a Sony Ericsson w710i which has a pedometer (step counter). It's pretty accurate and I actually enjoy checking how many steps I've taken during the week/month or the average number of steps a day. It also helps get a rough distance between two places.

    It doesn't do any other fitness things really.

    Just thought I'd let people know about it.

  • I can get my wife one of these, and not worry about her having sex with it while I'm not home!
  • Sorry can't talk right now, gotta run !
  • Just what we need: A phone that can also serve as a polygraph. Now when the spooks record your conversations they can tell when you're lying. ;-)

  • Java Apps (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Doctor Sbaitso ( 605467 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2007 @08:07PM (#20934391) Journal
    Using your mobile to help stay in shape is a good idea, but there's really no need to buy a separate phone to do so (unless you want additional hardware functionality, like being able to hook it up to your running shoes).

    There are quite a few Java applications out there to do so that work on most new mobile phones, like GymTracker [getjar.com] to track workouts and KCal [getjar.com] to monitor calorie consumption.
  • I suppose checking bad breath is HUGE! hasn't anyone ever told you that when someone offers you a breath mint, you should take it?
  • Are they going to give the phone a computery voice so it can lecture the smokers every time they try and light up? I think it would be cool if you could choose between different voices. I would include a HAL voice as well as one for a 'lecturing Jewish grandma', at very least. You could also have an 'irritating second-hand smoke whiner' voice. Obviously, the HAL voice would refer to everybody as Dave, regardless of their name. I wonder if they could make the phone capable of extinguishing the cigarettes?

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