What's New at the labs

Newly appointed President and CEO
We are pleased to announce that a new President and CEO, Dr. Kazuo Imai, joined DoCoMo USA Labs in May 2007. Dr. Imai has over twenty years of experience in research and development of communications technology at NTT and NTT DoCoMo combined in various areas including data switching system design, ISDN interface definition, Broadband ISDN access network technology and network middleware platforms. He led NTT DoCoMo Research Center in YRP in Japan before he took the current position with great leadership and track records. He will lead DoCoMo USA Labs to aim advancement of cellular phone technologies: mobile ubiquitous to mobile broadband world.

NTT DoCoMo Develops High-Quality Speech Coding Technology for Mobile Phones
TOKYO, JAPAN, April 3, 2007 --- NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that in collaboration with DoCoMo Communications Laboratories USA, Inc., it has developed speech coding technology that provides exceptionally high-quality voice for mobile phones, yet only requires the low-level computing power of conventional mobile telephony technologies.

This new technology realizes a wide frequency range of 50Hz - 16kHz, which is approximately the full range of the human voice. By comparison, the frequency range of legacy telephony services is limited to 300Hz - 3.4kHz.

The technology employs speech compression that is matched to the specific characteristics of human auditory perception, such as the fact that distortion in loud sounds is relatively imperceptible. Moreover, the technology enhances sound quality to a remarkably high degree and processes coding with great efficiency.

The resulting voice quality is so realistic that conversations via mobile phones sound as if the other person were in the same room. The technology will be especially helpful in mobile applications where voice quality is particularly critical, such as teleconferencing and remote education.

DoCoMo's "hTc Z" handset will be used to demonstrate a working version of the technology at "Telecom Summit Wireless Technology Park 2007" at the Pacifico Yokohama exhibition complex in Yokohama from April 4 to 5, 2007.

DoCoMo is continuing to develop its speech coding technology for commercialization in the foreseeable future.

DoCoMo Communications Laboratories USA is based in Palo Alto, California and focuses on research and development. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT DoCoMo USA, which itself is a wholly owned subsidary of NTT DoCoMo.

2006

Dr. Chia-Chin Chong was awarded the Merit of Certificate of "The Outstanding Young Malaysian Awards 2006 (TOYM)" at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The award ceremony was held in November 4, 2006 and the award was given by Malaysia's Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Dr. Chong was selected as 2006 TOYM Awardees in "Scientific and Technological Development" category.

Dr. Chia-Chin Choung received "The Best Paper Award" from IEEE International Conference on Ultra-Wideband (ICUWB).

Our office has moved to Palo Alto from San Jose, California as of July 24, 2006.

In addition:

We are expanding and are seeking enthusiastic, innovative research staff to contribute to our labs progress towards becoming a world class research establishment. If you are interested in being part of our future-leading team please visit the Careers section of our website.