I’m talking to you about an era that those under 30 cannot know, a prehistoric era during which cell phones – let’s not even talk about smartphones – only existed in the Armani suit pockets of yuppies of Wall Street and or in those of the coats of some doctors. To be sure not to miss a call, you had to equip yourself with a pagerhorrible little beeping plastic box which indicated to its owner that someone was trying to contact him on his landline. You could then find a telephone and call back your correspondent.
Sega wants to revive this golden age (in the absence of silicon) with its Emojam. This little electronic gadget takes the idea of the pager, but adapts it a little. First of all, it only works over WiFi. In addition, no text can be read on the Emojam which can only display emoticons, these small faces supposed to represent emotions, but also animals, means of transport, thumbs up… Let us specify that an Emojam cannot receive messages other than those sent by another Emojam. Finally, physical contact must be established between two terminals so that they can communicate. In a nutshell, Emojam is above all a hyper-secure communication service mainly intended for children.
You can create conversation groups that can bring together up to 5 people and, according to Sega, up to 1100 emoticons can be used to create messages: it’s up to everyone to use them as best they can to create messages, coded or not, puzzles… Obviously, emblematic Sega characters are available as emoticons, but other licenses are already planned for download, including the extremely famous Hello Kitty from Sanrio.
Underneath futile undertones, an idea perhaps not so far-fetched after all
At a time when the use of a smartphone and social networks are a real cause for concern, especially when young people are concerned, the Sega Emoja is perhaps not such a bad solution. Thanks to this small device, no unknown person can come into contact with children and they can learn, in complete safety, how to use a network properly before launching into a much more open application. Only small problem, for the moment, Emojas will only be available in Japan, at a price of €44 per device, which seems a little expensive for the features offered.
