By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer
A new mobile phone in Japan takes security pretty seriously: It can
recognize its owner, automatically locks when the person gets too far
away from it and can be found via satellite navigation if it goes missing.
The P903i from NTT DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile carrier, comes with a
small black card about the size of a movie-ticket stub. The card works
as a security key by connecting wirelessly with the cell phone.
If an owner keeps the card in a bag or pocket, the phone recognizes when
the card moves too far away and locks automatically to prevent someone
from making a call. The user can choose to have the phone lock when it
is 26 feet, 66 feet or 130 feet away.
People who lose their security cards can punch in a password to unlock
the phone. But they will have to buy a new card to set the lock again.
The extra security is handy because, like other recent Japanese phones,
the P903i can be used as a credit card or a prepaid cash card.
Of course, the new security feature won't prevent snoops from getting
information from the phone -- reading personal e-mails, say -- if it
is within the set distance of the security key.
To guard against such intruders, users can activate the phone's facial
identification feature.
Here's how that works. Owners must first take at least three photos of
themselves with the phone's camera. Up to 10 can be shot, in various
situations: with and without glasses, with and without makeup, indoors
and outdoors.
Then, if the facial-recognition feature is turned on, before accessing
the handset a user has to take a picture of himself with the
camera. The phone analyzes features such as distance between the eyes
and unlocks if the image matches the stored data.
A separate function recognizes whether the eyes are blinking -- in
case someone tries to show the owner's photo to gain fraudulent
entry. Not only that, a four-letter password can be added to this
process, to guard against an identical twin getting unauthorized
access.
"Security is increasingly a key function for mobile phones as they
become loaded with more sophisticated features," said NTT DoCoMo
spokeswoman Mamiko Tanaka. "Handset makers are all competing to come
up with interesting ways to strengthen security."
Should the P903i get lost, the user can track it with its onboard
Global Positioning System. After entering the phone number into a Web
site, the owner will see a map showing the phone's rough location --
directions via GPS can be off by several hundred feet.
Pricing for the phone, which is manufactured by Matsushita Electric
Industrial Co. and planned for sale in the next few months, has not
yet been announced. Using the GPS service to look for a missing phone
will cost $2.50 a pop.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.
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Yuri Kageyama (ap@telecom-digest.org)