Linking mobiles and appliances

TOKYO – The world’s largest mobile phone supplier Nokia Corp. and Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. said they would develop technology to link cellphones and home appliances.

The new technology would enable users to control video machines and other home electronic devices via remote control through their mobile phones.

They would even be able to operate a security camera set-up at home and view images on a mobile screen.

Data would be exchanged between the cellphones and appliances over the Internet.

The collaboration would enable "the exchange and viewing of images, audio, video and text in mobile terminals and in future home electronic devices," the firms said in a joint statement.

Nokia and Matsushita – better known through its Panasonic and National brands – did not say when they aimed to launch products with the new technology, but local reports said they would come in one to two years.