The latest Japanese phones from NTT DoCoMo offer a novel feature that could be life-saving. Called Area Mail, the new feature provides quick emergency reports delivered to mobile phones in a specific area, with dedicated ringtones and messages used to alert the user to an impending emergency.

The Aria Mail service will be started in 2007. At the presentation, DoCoMo operated a demonstration model that reproduces screen displays and ring tones on its own without the actual service operating. All the 905i series models and six 705i series models support this service.

NTT DoCoMo also announced a few other interesting pieces of mobile phone technology…

The new NTT DoCoMo phones also offer Shabette Hon-yaku, a Japanese-English (and vice versa) voice translation service. Simply speak into the phone in Japanese, and the phone will speak back in English - or vice versa, if preferred.

The interesting thing about this service is that the translation occurs on the server, not the mobile phone, meaning that the service is free to improve in time without the need to upgrade the handsets.