Japan Unveils ‘Fitness Phone’

These days, cell phones let people do a lot more than just make phone calls. Phone makers in Japan have unveiled a mobile phone that citizens can keep on top of their health with.

Japan’s largest cell phone carrier NTT DoCoMo unveiled this week a “Fitness Phone,” designed to help the user stay healthy — and avoid bad breath.

The handheld phone, equipped with various devices that can measure your pulse or the amount of steps you’ve taken in a day, dispenses heath advice after you’ve punched in statistics such as gender, age and weight.

And you can also exhale into the phone and it will tell you whether its time to reach for the breath mints.

“Our primary target groups would be fat-fighting middle-aged businessmen and young women on diets,” said Kentaro Endo, a spokesman for NTT DoCoMo.

Seems like an interesting application for a cell phone. I wonder if this phone (or one like it) will find it’s way to America?

If this phone were available to you, would you use it to help keep you fit?

MSNBC