Hyundai demos mobile phone based entry system for cars, via NFC

Got a problem with managing keys? Clutch to your cellphone for your dear life? Hyundai may have used one problem you have to solve another.

Hyundai demos mobile phone based entry system for cars, via NFC

If you’re the sort of person who’s always misplacing their keys, well, in two years’ time, you will not have to worry. Hyundai has recently demoed a system that will allow the unlocking of your car using just your cellphone. Sounds too much like something out of a James Bond film doesn’t it?

In its latest demo, Hyundai showcased how they plan on making the cellphone an integral part of your vehicular lives. The entry mechanism that they demoed ditches the Bluetooth concept for one that employs Near Field Communications.

Thanks to a small sticker (an NFC tag) on the window of your car, all you would have to do is swing your phone over it and the car in unlocked and ready to go.

Along with keyless entry, Hyundai is also attempting to bring together a more personal experience to driving. A dock in the center of the vehicle would be a place where the phone could be seated for charging, from where, it will be able to transmit your playlists and radio preferences to the in-dash entertainment system.

Along with entertainment, Hyundai also plans on being able to save seat alignment preferences, temperature preferences and any other personal settings to individual driver profiles, which will be assigned to specific phones. Essentially, if 3 different people drive the same car, all they have to do is place their phone on the little dock and voila!

While the system seems like quite a leap forward as far as convenience goes, but we can’t help but be a little skeptical. A system like this could be a huge liability. In the event that you get robbed, you not only lose your cellphone, but also your car. Probably a good thing the system is still 2 years away from mass market manufacturing. Hopefully, we’d have figured out better security measures by then.

Lava aims to file 100 app patents in the next 2-3 years

Lava aims to file 100 app patents in the next 2-3 years

Lava aims to have 100 patents in areas such as education, entertainment and productivity in the next 2-3 years.

Indian phone maker Lava International says it is aiming to file for about 100 patents for mobile applications related to various fields such as education, entertainment and productivity in the next two to three years.

“We have realised that just by selling handsets it is not possible to maintain growth momentum. Innovation in product is key to survival. Our wishlist is to make a century of patents in the next 2 to 3 years,” Times of India quotes Lava International co-founder and Director, SN Rai as saying.

Lava is also planning to raise its revenues from Rs. 1,000 crore at present to Rs. 1,400 crore in the next financial year. According to Rai, the company has set aside around Rs. 50 crore for investments in building a patent portfolio and also focuses on developing algorithms and applications.

“We have already filed two patents for algorithms but they have not been granted yet. Lava recently launched music fusion application which can play music and video in any format. We want to have an IPR (intellectual property right) for the algorithm of this application,” added Rai.

Lava is also working to bolster its research and development centers across India and China. The company recently forayed into tablets segment, and claims to sell about 25,000 tablets monthly. “This is just to test the market. We are working on massive plans to revamp our tablet portfolio. At present, we are in the planning stage,” noted Rai.

The company has also partnered with publisher Tata McGraw Hill and iProf to develop educational content for the mobile devices. The consortium will together invest about Rs. 25 crore in the next two to three years to digitize content.

Lava is also eying the enterprise segment via business software integration. “We will start mainly by focusing on secure communication like e-mail security. Simultaneously, we will start working on productivity software like ERP (enterprise resource planning) and others,” Rai concluded.

Source: Times of India