A phone and fetus monitor in one

Inspired by the photo of a pregnant woman trying to record her fetus' heartbeat on a cell phone, Hyoung Won set off to find a "smarter" mobile phone for those with child.

Credit: Hyoung Won

The result--a project done for his master's degree in Interaction Design at Sweden's Umea University--was his own baby of sorts, "Emma." The Emma phone captures fetus videos, pictures, heartbeat sounds and tangible movements through a hand-held ultrasound tranducer, he said.

With Emma, Hyoung said he envisions the user uploading multi-media data onto a Web site "to share the pregnancy experience with other family members and friends."

Hyoung said he'd like to develop what's now more of a concept into a working model, but first needs a sponsor. He thinks the Emma phone can be manufactured with current technologies and would fill a market niche, he said.

Maybe we'll see Emma some day on the shelves of Babies R Us, along with other technology in the works that monitors a sleeping child through sensors in the mattress.