Coming soon: SMS TV

Texting for couch potatoes

Is nowhere safe from text messaging, coming soon to landlines and not so soon to TVs?

A Devon firm called WirelessOcean has developed Text2TV, a set-top box-based system which plugs into a mobile phone's data port and one of a TV set's multimedia SCART channels, New Scientist reports.

If someone texts you, the message pops up on your screen. To reply you can use a remote control and a virtual keyboard on the screen or, if you're a Sky subscriber, you can just key in the message. There's no need to key in a message using a mobile phone in either case.

To use the system you still need a phone, but Wireless Ocean hopes the idea of using a more user-friendly interface will catch on.

It's showing prototypes of its technology to consumer electronics manufacturers and hopes they will build in the technology to future TVs, video recorders and mobile phones. ®