Motorola patenting Feng Shui-enabled cellphone

by Evan Blass posted Apr 28th 2006 at 1:32PM

Motorola knows what a pain it can be to hire a consultant every time you need to get your Feng Shui-on at a new location, so they're trying to patent a method for measuring chi levels right from your cellphone. In order to provide the user with the greatest amount of must-have qi, phones equipped with this tech would use nearly every available sensor -- and one dedicated one -- to develop an accurate overview of the environment: the camera is used for evalulating color saturation and spacial relationships, the GPS reciever for determining proximity to "undesirable" sites, the microphone for gauging ambient noise levels, and even the radio for measuring AM/FM transmission strength from the nearest towers. Since no Feng Shui reading would be possible without knowing which direction the main wall of the building faces, the Moto patent also calls for the inclusion of a "three-dimensional Hall-effect sensor" that would measure the strength of electromagnetic fields to deliver digital compass readings. While this all seems a bit complicated, software would take care of most of the hard work, essentially allowing the user to snap a few photos and sit back as the phone's sophisticated chi engine leads him/her to a harmonious balance.

[Via Unwired View]

Filed under: Motorola

Tags: cameraphone, chi, Culture, feng shui, feng-shui, FengShui, gps, harmony, moto, patent, pseudoscience, qi, radio

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Kama @ Sep 12th 2008 8:15PM

They got the Yin-Yang backwards, which is supposed to be really bad luck. Did they even consult a real Feng Shui master when designing this thing at all?

Neutral

Stephen @ Apr 28th 2006 2:24PM

Wow. Just wow... I can't believe it was somebodies job to think this up.

Supervisor: So what's the newest features that we're going to use to set us appart.
Engineer: Well, My wife is redecorating living room and we both agree it would have been easier with a feng-shui enabled phone.

Neutral

Ben @ Apr 28th 2006 2:30PM

To put quite frankly: WTF?

Neutral

Joel A @ Apr 28th 2006 2:45PM

Huh. Well, it's a lot easier to practice then driving/parking the feng shui way:

http://www.autoblog.com/2006/04/17/how-to-drive-and-park-your-vehicle-the-feng-shui-way/

Neutral

ac @ Apr 29th 2006 12:44AM

ironic that the company that makes the phones with the worst interface is installing fung shui on them. fix the address book and menus first, motorola!

Neutral

iradio waves @ May 1st 2006 9:20PM

Haha! Awesome, ya gotta love it.

Neutral

andrew k from az @ May 1st 2006 9:22PM

spatial, is that what you mean? or special? it's one or the other...
what a whack idea. who would possibly use this??

Neutral

Richard @ May 4th 2006 2:15AM

The Motorola patent has been moved, does this mean it has been rejected? I wasn't able to find it in the patent database of USPTO.

Neutral

Carol @ Jul 12th 2006 7:50PM

Just what traditional professional practioners need...another Feng Shui marketing scheme to damage the reputation.

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