Monday, December 1, 2003		IT Click

A red light flashes as a CyberKey communicates with an electronic CyberLock cylinder during a Videx demonstration. Videx produces access control systems. The smart keys are programmable and the cylinders can replace locks in standard doors or be used in a variety of other access control areas.

A man looks at a huge mockup of a CDMA mobile phone at the China Unicom stand at an international communications equipment and technology exhibition in Beijing. China now has over 500 million telephone subscribers, half of them mobile users, more than any other country.

A conventioneer tries out a wireless i-Pen. The pen works as a mouse or a “digital pen,” inputting handwriting or artwork, but unlike other pens it can be used on any surface. A wired version is currently available for $99. A wireless (radio frequency) version will be available in early 2004, a spokesman said.

Japan’s mobile phone giant NTT DoCoMo Inc researcher wears a prototype of a wearable device which detects muscle signals and recognises words in the movement of the mouth at the company’s research centre in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo. The technology may allow one to make a phone call without uttering a word.