Making a mobile phone call could soon be as simple as clicking your fingers and putting your forefinger in your ear.
Japan's largest mobile telecommunications company, NTT DoCoMo, is developing a wearable mobile phone that uses the human body to make calls.
Called Finger Whisper, the device is built into a narrow strap worn on the wrist like a watch.
To answer a ringing Finger Whisper phone, or to initiate and end phone calls, the user simply touches forefinger to thumb and then puts his forefinger in his ear.
Electronics in the wristband convert sound waves into vibrations, which are carried through the bones of the hand to the ear so that the Finger Whisper user can hear the other caller.
With bones transmitting sound vibrations better than air, the sound quality is expected to surpass a conventional mobile phone and should easily drown out noisy surroundings.
A microphone in the wristband replaces the mobile phone's usual mouthpiece, and instead of dialling a number the user says it out loud. Voice recognition technology turns the command into a dialled number.
NTT DoCoMo researchers in Tokyo are also working on a refinement of the Finger Whisper phone in which sound would be picked up by analysing movements in the muscles around the mouth.
To pick up the myoelectric signals generated by muscle cells a user would wear ring-shaped detector electrodes on the thumb, forefinger and middle finger, and rest these fingers on the cheek and upper lip.
So far, the researchers have managed to identify vowels. They are now striving to discern consonants, a tougher challenge as consonants require more complex muscle movements and are generally spoken more quickly than vowels.
The eventual goal, Nikkei Weekly reported, was to analyse brain waves, although that carries the danger that mobile phone users could inadvertently pass on their innermost thoughts about the person with whom they are speaking.
The company said it was too early to say when the Finger Whisper phone might go on sale.
The Telegraph, London
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