Face-recognition security for mobile phones

Japanese company Omron has developed the Vision Face Recognition Sensor for camera-equipped handheld devices that can authenticate users.

Ziff Davis reports that the sensor can increase the security of mobile devices and protect the data they contain.

Omron believes that as the capabilities of mobile devices have grown, so has the need for increased security.

DVD recorder shipments in Japan more than doubled in 2004 and will likely see another strong year as the technology gets cheaper, says MM Research Institute.

The research institute says Japan saw growth of 110% in DVD recorders shipped last year, reaching a total of 4.03 million units, reports AFP.

By value, shipments rose 53.5% to 218 billion yen, indicating lower retail prices that helped fuel sales.

Microsoft will stay out of the sports video game market for now, except in racing, leaving most of the category to other publishers, reports Reuters.

On Monday, Microsoft said it had sold the assets of its team sports games to French publisher Ubisoft.

"We made a decision almost a year ago to re-evaluate what we were doing in sports. Frankly, we were not delivering at the kind of quality we needed for our customers and to compete effectively," says Shane Kim, head of Microsoft Game Studios.

While terms of the Ubisoft deal were not disclosed, Kim says it did not leave Microsoft an opening to reuse the intellectual property in question.