Japanese Cell Phones Take Cue from Wii

Playing the Wii is so addicting. I recently started playing a Wii Sports for aerobic exercise, and you better believe you'll break a sweat after a few rounds. It's definitely the best thing that could've happened to gaming. Now, can you imagine having a cell phone with motion sensing capabilities? I don't think anything can prepare us for mobile phone gamers kicking and punching while walking down the street.   

Japan's NTT DoCoMo will be launching a new series of cell phones with motion sensing capabilities starting this summer. The 904i-series phones made by Mitsubishi, Matsushita, and Sharp, and will be the first cell phones ever to have these motion sensors. All five handsets—D904i, F904i, N904i, P904i and SH904i—have different features such as mouse trackpads, accelerometers (shake the phone to display email), ability to have a second phone number on the same phone, and mobile banking abilities.  

The P904i is particularly interesting because it works like a Nintendo Wii controller. Mobile gamers will be able to play Katamari Damacy as well boxing games where the phone's camera picks up movements such as ducking or punching. Here you can see a video of  DoCoMo's Managing Director playing Katamari Damacy on a motion sensing phone. He said 68 games will be available upon release, so there will be plenty of games at release time. Sounds fun, although, it's worth noting that a PC World article says the cell phones "aren't as reactive as the Wii console but they are likely to become more so as technology improves."

Unfortunately the phones will only be available in Japan, so let's hope someone in the U.S. picks up on this technology soon, and starts offering it in American handsets. Although, I'm a bit skeptical considering how liable this makes companies to lawsuits from people getting hurt on the subway.

What do you think? Is motion sensing games a good idea on cell phones?