Smartphone, Stupidpeople

[Coligny]

I would have sooooo chased that guy...

Tried to...

Because a Nissan Note catching up with a Mercobenz CLS... That's not going to happen...

[Coligny]

Then today I did the same as the jerk in the benz avoiding crash with a keycar just thanks to cat like reflexe from both drivers...me swerving, him braking.
Still absolutely don't know how I missed that red light, way I take twice everyday. Was just driving without anything else going on in the whip beside the usual slow driving music.
Might have driven slower than usual and therefore wrongly anticipated the end of the yellow light. Or the Keycar might have started early (but I doubt it). The whole thing is certainly still in the drive recorder memory, but I sort of kinda not really want to see it. As there are no real new lesson to be learn from it. At least nothing more than "pay attention to the fucking traffic light". The only thing that might have been a factor is a sewer plate in the middle of this crossing that raised a bit certainly because of minor soil liquefaction around. Making it a bumpy ride to pass, so I was more focused on trying to locate the plate than looking up in the sky for the signal, that how I realized that 'awww shit their is a car over the sewer plate', then checked the sky for the signal... Second 'awwww shit'...
Those high suspended traffic lights sucks... I much prefer the euro style one, vertical, one big on top of regular signal pole, on small at driver level...
It's the second red light that I missed, first one was at night under a hard rain. Just trying to find where the road was going was enough of a job...
No self denunciation duty mentioned in the road and traffic laws... So lucky on that even at least for my stomach...

[Russell]

Firm wants your smartphone to smell

When operating a smartphone, three of the five senses are used: touch (manipulating the screen), hearing (listening to music or a show — or just participating in that old-fashioned activity known as a phone call) and sight (viewing photos or video on the high-resolution display).

The other two senses — taste and smell — may not come into play, but Tokyo-based Scentee Inc. wants to change that. It is releasing a gadget to the market next month that will make smell a part of the smartphone experience.

The attachment, also called the Scentee, emits a scent in accordance with how the phone is being used. It is believed to be the world’s first such device for smartphones.

Having already created a buzz, especially overseas at a Spanish trade show, the firm has high hopes for the Scentee when it’s released Nov. 15.

The device, which is plugged into the earphone jack, has a tank that can puff out a scent about 100 times.

The Scentee can act as a simple scent diffuser if the user sets the device to spray automatically at specific times, for instance when one is getting up in the morning. But it can also be a communications tool, which the manufacturer aims to improve further.

For example, the app that drives the device can work with Facebook and Scentee users can make it emit a pleasing aroma when their entries get a “Like,” or customize it further to do so every 50 or 100 “Likes.”

“We hope to facilitate the Scentee as a communications tool . . . so we want to develop an SNS application” that is focused on scents, said Masaru Tange, chief executive officer of Shift Inc, the parent of Scentee Inc.

The idea of a gadget that could let users enjoy scents while using their smartphones was initially floated around 2010, according to Aki Yamaji, a corporate planning division manager at Shift.

“At first, it was really just an idea and we were talking about how it would be cool if there was this kind of thing” that enabled people to enjoy smells with their mobile phone, she said.

Although Shift is a software maker, Tange’s background in hardware manufacturing helped the firm make the idea a reality. About a year later, in May 2011, the company put together a team to take a serious stab at producing such a device, and the Scentee was born.

It was during the Mobile World Congress in Spain that year when the firm realized the product’s market potential.

“We received a huge reaction from people around the world. They said they wanted to become distributors of the Scentee . . . we thought this can really be a hit product overseas, ” Yamaji said of their experience at the world’s largest mobile trade show.

Scentee Chief Executive Officer Koki Tsubouchi said his firm has already been in talks with many interested parties. He refused to disclose any details but hinted that they include globally popular cosmetics brands.

He said the head of one such firm was astonished when he saw the Scentee.

“I think experts in the ‘scent business’ are not necessarily familiar with information technology, so it might be an unknown field to them,” Tsubouchi said.

Currently, the firm is planning two business models with the Scentee, Tsubouchi said. One is to sell cartridges of various aromas, such as rose, lavender, jasmine and strawberry.

They will be priced at ¥500, and the company plans to let third parties sell them as well by selling them empty cartridges. The Scentee itself will be sold at ¥3,480.

Another strategy is to collect data on when and where people diffuse what kind of scent and build a big database.

Tsubouchi believes that once his firm creates this database, many companies doing business in relation to scents will come calling.

The attachment will also allow these firms to send out samples of their products in cartridges and then, because smartphones are involved, quickly get reactions from around the world, he said.

There are other ideas, too, such as using GPS to diffuse scents when they approach certain places while driving, he said.

In the meantime, Scentee is planning to introduce an application called Hana Yakiniku (Nose Barbecue) when the device debuts next month.

The app provides video images of meat being grilled and causes the Scentee to emit a scent of barbecued meat.

People interested in this app will need to buy a package of three cartridges containing the smell of barbecue rib, tongue and potatoes with butter.

Tsubouchi said business opportunities for smartphone accessories are growing.

Japan’s smartphone accessory market will grow to ¥145 billion by 2016, he predicted, a 96 percent increase from 2012.

“The culture of spending money for smartphone accessories is becoming stronger,” he said.

What smells will they introduce next?

- Eau de Cologne
- Fart de Coligny

Actually, now I think of it, this may have serious safety issues.

Just imagine someone puts some poisonous substance in those cartridges. Sounds like a wet dream for groups like Omu Shinrikyou.

[Taro Toporific]

Man Hit By Train While Using Cell Phone On Tracks (GOOD!)
japanCRUSH / Saturday, October 19, 2013
Around 8:10 PM on October 16, at a railroad crossing near Oyama station on the Tobu Tojo line in Oyamahigashi, Itabashi ward, Tokyo, a man seemingly in his 40s died after being hit by the Tokyo-bound express train from Ogawa to Ikebukuro.
The man was observed walking while fiddling with his cell phone, and Tokyo Metropolitan Police at the Itabashi office believe that the man entered the railroad crossing without noticing that the crossing gates were going down...more...

[Coligny]

image.jpg

[Mike Oxlong]

Dumbwalking, The Sequel

In a post on March 27 I suggested a new word --"dumbwalking" -- to describe the glacial and autistic walk of persons absorbed in interaction with their smart phones ("Smart Phones Make For Dumb Walks" being my explanatory epigram). I suggested at the time that the proliferation of smart phones would bring on the day when the Shibuya Crossing would fail to clear.

Guess what?

NTT DoCoMo has posted a video of the simulation of this exact scenario on its You Tube Channel.

The result: if the crowd of walkers are all operating smart phones, only 36% of them make it across in the 46 seconds they have between the light changes at the Shibuya Crossing.

Click on the link and watch the video. It is trip -- literally, in some cases.

One key variable, made clear at the 0:47 point of the simulation, is the speed at which dumbwalkers are presumed to perambulate. According to motion studies at the Aichi University of Technology, dumbwalking (the Japanese term is sumaho aruki) is an astonishing 20 times slower than normal walking.

So "glacial" is not hyperbole and one is not imagining things. Dumbwalkers really are moving so slowly they might as well be considered inanimate objects.

Takes the "mobile" right out of mobile telephony, doesn't it?

http://shisaku.blogspot.jp/2014/04/dumb ... equel.html

[Russell]

No. of accidents involving people using phones while walking increases

Look down any crowded train carriage or busy street in Japan and you’re guaranteed to find the majority of people with their heads bent over their mobile phones or other electronic devices. And while there’s no end of anthropologists twittering on about the damage all this constant stimulus is doing to the youth of today, there’s also a very physical risk that can come with cell phone addiction.

The number of ambulance call-outs for people who have been injured due to using their smartphones while walking or driving is on the rise.

According to statistics from the Tokyo Fire Department, 36 people were injured in 2013 compared to 23 in 2010. While the numbers are still thankfully in the double digits, that’s an increase of 50% compared to four years ago. Last year the biggest cause of smartphone-related accidents (26 people) was people using their phones or looking at the screens, and the next (5 people) were injured while talking on the phone. This indicates that it’s smartphones with their touch-enabled screens and myriad functions that are the main culprit.

And the numbers are rising year by year as smartphone usage continues to proliferate, to the point that the fire department has deemed it serious enough to issue a warning, saying that “It is very dangerous as not only is there the danger of harming yourself, but also of involving surrounding people in an accident.”

In the four years from 2010 to the end of 2013, a total of 122 people were involved in accidents connected to their phone usage. The most common age group to be involved in such an accident was people in their 40s, followed by those in their 20s. As for the types of accidents, around 40% were classed as “collisions,” followed by “falls” as the next most common. Around 80% of people only sustained mild injuries, but there were cases that involved hospitalization and even death.

More

[omae mona]

No. of accidents involving people using phones while walking increases

I'm tempted to *cause* one of those accidents. I frequently use a subway station with a narrow platform. When getting off the train and heading for the exit, I usually have the choice of walking patiently behind a smartphone user going about 1km/h, or trying to maneuver around them, putting myself at risk of a head-on collision with somebody doing "kakekomi josha", sprinting toward the train in the remaining open space.

It recently occurred to me that if I push a smartphone user off to the side a little bit with just the right timing, I can eliminate both annoying commuters.

[Coligny]

36 people were injured in 2013

I'm pretty sure more people than that died while looking at paint to dry.
And that might be 1/10th of the number of people fatally wounded while clipping their cats claws...
Other things that might have had a better kill ratio:
Auto erotic asphyxia
Coffee enema
Bird watching
Living in Hokkaido
Driving in Aichi
Eating mocchi while being over 60

[Taro Toporific]

How Walking With Smartphones May Have Changed Pedestrian Etiquette
Slashdot | February 22, 2015 -- from the outta-the-way-bub dept.
The phenomenon of 'distracted walking' — pedestrians who walk while using smartphones — has raised civic attention in the last few years, with Utah issuing fines and cities in China creating dedicated 'smartphone lanes' for walkers who need to keep up with Whatsapp on the move. This article {Stand aside for the smartphone generation} argues that smartphone users have become so accustomed to other people getting out of their way that they will no longer negotiate for sidewalk space even when not using their phones.
More...

zombie-with-iphone.jpg

keitai-brains.jpg