Vodafone Japan debuts camera phone with optical zoom, "facial motion"

Vodafone K.K. today announced it was introducing a two megapixel camera phone with an optical zoom -- the world's first commercially available optical zoom in a camera phone. The press release about the V602SH camera phone doesn't provide any specifics about the zoom, so I don't know whether it's 2x (probably) or better.

The press release says the handset uses a swivel design that allows the handset to be reverse 180 degrees.

(Update: The optical zoom is 2x and the digital zoom is up to 40x. The handset also includes an SD card slot. The LCD is 2.4 inches (320 x 240) and can display a maximum of 260,000 colors.)

Vodafone's release says it also has introduced "facial motion capture technology" for the V602SH and another new handset, the V601T. The software is from Santa Monica, Calif. software company Neven Vision.

Neven Vision software

Here's what Jeremy Morgan, a PR spokesperson for Neven Vision, wrote me about the software, "Neven Vision's software -- embedded in camera phones from handset manufacturers Sharp and Toshiba -- will be the foundation for a wireless video messaging service that allows dynamic graphics to be placed over the sender's face and move with their changing expressions.

"Vodafone KK's subscribers can give themselves a moustache, glasses, a halo, a crown, stars and birds can circle their heads, etc. Neven Vision's software maps and tracks the sender's face in real time and communicates that information to a graphics package.

"Later in the year, this will evolve into a full avatar service -- Mickey Mouse will appear to be speaking your words. These services will represent an important means for carriers to recoup their investments in 3G networks."

Neven Vision specializes in "machine vision technology" that includes modules (see below) for "face detection, face recognition and facial feature tracking," the company says.