Vodafone's Japanese division has announced that after early December it will offer Bow-Lingual CONNECT, a service that can convert dog barks into text and expressions. Customers can enjoy Bow-Lingual CONNECT by using it in conjunction with Vodafone K.K.'s V601SH by Sharp, a mobile handset also announced for launch yesterday.
Bow-Lingual CONNECT allows Vodafone customers to enjoy on their mobile the functions of the Bow-Lingual dog bark translating device first sold by Takara Co., Ltd. in September 2002 and was made possible by the joint development efforts of Index Corporation and Takara Co., Ltd., the content providers and developers of the mobile service solution.
The main feature of Vodafone's Bow-Lingual CONNECT is Bark Translation, a function that translates a dog's barks into feelings. To use Bow-Lingual CONNECT, V601SH customers must go to a Vodafone shop or other sales channel to purchase a Bow-Lingual CONNECT Card. After inserting the card into the V601SH's SD card slot and booting the Bow-Lingual CONNECT Application, if a customer comes within 40cm of a dog, barks will be analyzed resulting in text and illustrations of six dog feelings (happy, sad, frustrated, on-guard/territorial, assertive/showing off and needy) being displayed on the V601SH's main display. Text can also be displayed alongside pictures of the dog taken with the handset's built-in mobile camera. In addition, almost all of the other functions included in Takara's Bow-Lingual can be enjoyed on the V601SH.
To fully utilize Bow-Lingual CONNECT's capabilities as a mobile service, Index Corporation is scheduled to offer Bow-Net on Vodafone K.K.'s Vodafone live! mobile internet service after early December. By connecting with Bow-Net, customers will be able communicate with other users, download various data and access additional fun features such as an Osaka dialect version of the bark translator."
Posted to the site on 17th October 2003
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/9947.php