Tech Services

There is exciting technology being developed in Germany and because of an impromptu meeting at the recent CTIA Wireless Conference in New Orleans, I'm one of the lucky ones to have my own personal 3D Face Avatar. All it took was a photo of my face and some computer wizardry. It was engineered by DOCOMO Communications Laboratories Europe GmbH, or DOCOMO Euro-Labs, which is the Munich, Germany-based research arm of NTT DOCOMO, a Japanese mobile communications operator based in Tokyo. They also have offices in Silicon Valley and Beijing. According to their website, they are one of the world's largest mobile communications operators, with more than more than 59 million customers in Japan. My avatar is in the form of a movie, and when explained by DOCOMO representatives, it demonstrates the ways this technology can “be creative” with the avatar’s face." But ideally, it would be a still image that suddenly comes to life with human-like expressions like smiling, winking, tal...

As the International CTIA Wireless show was winding down, I left New Orleans with a feeling that I experienced the future of technology. It was happening all over the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and let me tell you, that is one big place. I didn't take long to run into bumper-to-bumper traffic as I tried to make my way home and I had plenty of time to think about all the cool gadgets and software applications as I snaked along the interstate past the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. This was an international show and the guys from Japan, China, Germany, South America and other locations certainly had good technology to show off. I think their 20-hour-plus flights were worth the time and effort to share their innovative ideas with us. I didn't know much about them before, but I am now a fan of international tech companies like NTT Docomo and Huawei . I have an avatar coming via email, which was created by a couple of sharp guys with Docomo, whose 3D modeling applica...