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Toys Handhelds Hardware

Using Your Cellphone To Control RC Cars 79

Posted by Hemos from the have-to-break-off-this-call-to-drive-my-car dept.
rocannon writes "Cellular-news reports that NEC has announced a technical cooperation with the Japanese toy manufacturer, Konami to enable its range of MICROiR toys cars to be controlled from the DoCoMo N504iS handset or the J-N51 handset sold by J-Phone. More details on Cellular News."
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Using Your Cellphone To Control RC Cars More

Using Your Cellphone To Control RC Cars

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  • Tiny cars (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by ThesQuid ( 86789 )
    Yes, but can I control those tiny tanks that were spammed to death last christmas?

  • I can see it now (Score:4, Funny)

    by Perdition ( 208487 ) on Monday May 26, 2003 @07:53AM (#6039901)
    "Honey, I have to hang up now, my Celica is stuck in a draingrate..."

  • I dont know whats worse (Score:4, Insightful)

    by nich37ways ( 553075 ) <slashdot@37ways.org> on Monday May 26, 2003 @07:55AM (#6039909) Homepage
    That a company thinks that this is a somehow useful feature that will get people to buy their phone, or that i know that people will buy these phones for this *useful feature* to give themseleves 30 seconds of joy before losing the little car.

    Having said that, I want one ;)

    • Re:I dont know whats worse (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Mononoke ( 88668 ) on Monday May 26, 2003 @08:10AM (#6039944) Homepage Journal
      I agree 100%.

      I'm still waiting for a phone that:

      1. Uses a properly designed antenna.
      2. Still works after it's dropped.
      3. Has covered buttons so that I don't accidentally dial when I sit down.
      4. Has decent battery life.
      What I don't need/want:
      1. Games. I've got a pack of cards that works without batteries.
      2. A camera. I've got a camera with a real lens.
      3. A PDA. Once again, more wasted battery power.
      I just want a friggin' phone that works.
      • One thing I am missing is:
        Low energy function that allows you to access the number stored in your phone even when the battery is really down.

        Or do phones actually have this already (mine is rather old).

      • Re:I dont know whats worse (Score:4, Insightful)

        by nich37ways ( 553075 ) <slashdot@37ways.org> on Monday May 26, 2003 @08:37AM (#6040021) Homepage
        A PDA and camera are two of my pet hates for new mobile features. The picture quality of the phone *cameras* from the real life examples I have seen, not just the doctored photos that Nokia, and others stick into their adds make it look like such a horrid waste of money. I would like to see a simple/standard way of connecting digital cameras to mobiles as that would, at least allow for some kind of half decent image quality.

        As for using a phone as a PDA, that is the silliest idea i have ever seen. A PDA is meant to have a nice and *big* screen which makes it easy to use. Meanwhile a phone is meant to be compact and easy to hold in one hand. These two things do NOT work together. A wide phone is a pain in the arse to use as you can not hold it properly. While a slim PDA is useless as you can not display enough useful information across the screen.

        I want my gadgets seperate damn it! One tool, should do one job well. It should not do half a dozen really badly.

        • Re:I dont know whats worse (Score:5, Funny)

          by Poeir ( 637508 ) <poeir,geo&yahoo,com> on Monday May 26, 2003 @09:57AM (#6040315) Journal
          I would like to see a simple/standard way of connecting digital cameras to mobiles as that would, at least allow for some kind of half decent image quality.

          What are you suggesting, some kind of "Universal Serial Bus?"
          • What, you can get a phone which accepts USB in from another device all of a sudden, as I am unaware of any such device existing?

            If I was to suggest something it would be some type of infra-red interface so that you dont have to carry around cables.
            • No, the device doesn't exist at this point, but I don't think there's any reason beyond no one's gotten around to building it. Your idea makes more sense than combining gadgets. There's also not much reason you couldn't add a zip cord to the bottom of a phone, with a USB connector. The technology exists, it just hasn't been combined at this point. (And then there are also the wireless technologies...)
          • No, he is talking about the UBA (Universal Business Adapter) from IBM. However, it will require another adapter to work in Europe.
        • "As for using a phone as a PDA, that is the silliest idea i have ever seen. A PDA is meant to have a nice and *big* screen which makes it easy to use. Meanwhile a phone is meant to be compact and easy to hold in one hand. These two things do NOT work together. A wide phone is a pain in the arse to use as you can not hold it properly. While a slim PDA is useless as you can not display enough useful information across the screen."

          Those two work perfectly together, if done right.

          You have two options: PDA pl
      • You want the Ericsson T10. Old but great.
      • I'm still waiting for a phone that:

        1. Uses a properly designed antenna.
        2. Still works after it's dropped.
        3. Has covered buttons so that I don't accidentally dial when I sit down.
        4. Has decent battery life.

        Well, if what you need is a GSM phone, I suggest you get one of those m-series of Siemens (m45, m35, etc). Shock proof (my friends play catch with it), antenna is hidden but still has strong signal, and decent battery life. As for the cover, while it doesn't have a cover, it does have a

    • I dont know whats worse ... but cool/T68i (Score:5, Interesting)

      by adzoox ( 615327 ) * on Monday May 26, 2003 @08:11AM (#6039946) Journal
      Having the added ability to use my T68i as an iTunes and DVD player controller [salling.com] for my Mac is a nice value bonus.

      I have ended up using Salling Clicker (linked above) for more things than I thought. (keynote, turn on password protection, etc)

      While controlling remote control cars may not be all that cool. (Range is horrible for those little cockroach cars) I do think it would be nice to have something like the feature integrated into Sony Clies where you can control ANY TV STEREO or CABLE BOX with just the selection of a brand name and type of device. I would love to be able to do this with my phone.

      After talking to the programmer of Romeo, a similar program - I have been keeping up with developments that t68i phones will soon be able to control TV's and VCRs, and etc - through an actual "on phone program" - right now Romeo and Salling Clicker are Push based.

      Does anyone know if there is an infrared to bluetooth or vice versa converter coming out?

    • I have an idea. How about a phone that stays connected, and sounds clear. They would sell a lot of those.
    • Just a point -- directly after you link the cell phones to the RC cars, (noting that that's 1-way data transfer), what's next?

      How about, using those nice color cell-phone screens to display an image from the car?

      Send it in at about 5 frames per second, 150x150. At Jpeg, that would be about 100kbaud. However, with any decent codec, you should be able to get that down by a factor of 10 or so, since the majority of the data will be changing in specific, set ways.

      So now you can have real-life races from th
  • Bah, what do I want some silly little looking ferrari for. Gimme McLaren damn it!!

    On a side note, how good are these infra red controls. In the past I have always found them to be a bit tricky to use at distance so I can see a lot of spectacular wipe outs as the cars lose signal.

    Then again it does mean getting a very realistic F1 experience as you see your team/car going straight into a wall and then falling to pieces.

  • Not News (Score:4, Funny)

    by rob_canoe ( 471581 ) on Monday May 26, 2003 @08:00AM (#6039922)
    This is not news, James Bond was doing this years ago.

  • Another Driving Distraction (Score:5, Funny)

    by rodney dill ( 631059 ) on Monday May 26, 2003 @08:03AM (#6039929) Journal
    People have enough trouble just talking on their cell phones when driving. Now they'll drive their RC car off the dashboard before plowing into to rear of a semi with their real car.
    • I agree!!! I'm sick of seeing freakin' blondes swerving all over the freeway talking on the cell phone and drinking their coffee!! So adding a little car for them to play with on the dash may not be the best idea guys. It's becoming quite obvious the technicians at these companies are just bored... I mean which genius woke up one morning with a hotwheels car in one hand and his cell phone in the other and said "today I will make this control this to cause more wrecks on the freeway!" I mean if we all ha

  • Bluetooth Anyone? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by notb4dinner ( 558244 )
    Wouldn't Bluetooth be a better way of achieving this? If they were to make the cars recieve they're control via Bluetooth, any Bluetooth device (including phones) with the appropriate software could control them. This would mean your not tied into buying a particular phone for what is nothing more than a gimmick (albeit an incredibly cool gimmick). Of course I make this with no real understanding of the latency involved in Bluetooth or the cost of a reciever (although I do remember it was originally supp

  • Plan (Score:4, Funny)

    by the uNF cola ( 657200 ) on Monday May 26, 2003 @08:10AM (#6039943)
    1. Place rc car movable plastic cup of water on shelf over brothers bed.
    2. Place rc car on shelf.
    3. Leave early.
    4. Drive car into water.
    5. Hilarity ensues :)
  • Great! Now all the people that can't drive and talk on a cell phone at the same time get to drive, talk and drive on a cell phone all at the same time.... I'm giving up my license now and going home.......

    • P.S.: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Botchka ( 589180 )
      I am posting this from my cellphone whilst cruising down the interstate at 85.4 miles per hour. Weehawww........
  • The article doesn't mention weither you have to pay phone costs for this.. I doubt the cars have a phone number, so how does this work?

  • The Code! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Tranvisor ( 250175 ) on Monday May 26, 2003 @08:21AM (#6039975) Homepage
    Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start makes your RC car have 30 lives ;)
  • ...was playing Pong [blinkenlights.de] on the Berlin Alexanderplatz. It was just bizarre to stand in front of that big building and being able to control the lights of the windows with a cellphone. Too bad it is no more...

  • A better idea (Score:3, Funny)

    by grungeman ( 590547 ) on Monday May 26, 2003 @08:39AM (#6040026)
    Allow people to control a real car with their mobilephone. This way they wouldn't need to keep one hand on the steering wheel when using their phone during driving.

  • N504iS phone... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I was thinking about getting the N504iS [nttdocomo.co.jp] (links are in English) but decided against it for a couple reasons. First of all, this phone is really nice. It's a clamshell style phone, like pretty much all the phones have become in Japan. It can already control most of the major brands of televisions here too. It also has a camera capable of taking 640x480 res pix. I believe the screen is also capable of display 256K colors, but I don't remember for sure. There's also a color screen on the outside of the cl

  • Oh jeez (Score:2, Funny)

    by Faust7 ( 314817 )
    I already hate people that bring their cells into theaters and classes and such. Now I might also have to deal with little toy cars running about? Are cell companies trying to get their customers shot?
    • " already hate people that bring their cells into theaters and classes and such. Now I might also have to deal with little toy cars running about? Are cell companies trying to get their customers shot? "

      Well, you have to admit, it would have made the car chase scene in Matrix Reloaded more interesting. "Whoah, he didn't dodge that bullet."
    • No that's the next cellphone model...the one that has a built in revolver.
  • ...was to make an RC car controlled by DTMF tones hooked up by a microphone on top of the car. I would then put my mobile phone on it, set it to auto answer, and then call it to drive around.

    Of course, the shielding for the audio circuts would have to be well shielded to avoid TDMA noise, but I'm sure that's simple to design around.
  • Maybe this would be big in Japan, but I don't see it as much more than a parlor trick here. Hey look, I can control the car with my cell phone! After seeing it once or twice, most people would find it pretty ho-hum. And the phone is not really suited to be a good R/C remote, so I don't see them selling cars sans remotes because people are using their cell phones.

    What made me think though, is how much cooler it would be if some dude hacked his phone and/or car so that the phone could control the car. F

  • Didn't James Bond have the same concept with using his PDA/Cell Phone as a RC device for his BMW. I mean the CIA might have thought of the idea before the Bond Movie and before the developers made RC Cellphone devices for testing with small RC Cars.
  • Great, now we can get some fuckwit driving a remote car while he drives his real car while he tries to make a phone call and send a text message all at once.
  • Figures. who else would do this?
  • The trend with new cellphones has been attempting to make them appeal to younger and younger kids. Turning the phones into "must have" toys for the kids means a sharp increase in an otherwise mostly saturated subscriber base.

    Text messaging, for example, has been re-marketed from its original status as a business feature; "When you get out of your meeting, Joe, please call Carol at ext. 490. Urgent!" to a play-toy feature for teens.

    Cameras built into cellphones? Another similar ploy. While you *might*
  • Cell phones are already a problem on the highway...
  • This would be so cool for Simon McKay from The Wizard!

    http://us.imdb.com/Title?0090547

    fear. Anyone remember this show?
  • Is it really necessary to have a cellphone that could control a remote control car?? It that supposed to save people time or something?? "Mom, I can't talk right now, I need to use my phone to race a remote control car." The two just do not go together, it seems uncanny and flat out pointless.
  • Finally there is something to use up all those useless night and weekend minutes! T-mobile mobile camera phone anyone?

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