The boffins at Vodafone Japan have announced a brace of whacked-out innovations for a new 3G handset, the Sharp Vodafone 904SH.

First up will be the introduction of a face-recognition security function. The feature will utilise the phone's camera and middleware from Oki Electric Industry Ltd, to recognise customers by sensing the position of their eyes, eyebrows, mouth and other facial features. The blurb claims the system automatically activates when opened and authenticates the user in under a second.

The new phone's second gizmo is the inclusion of the world's smallest six-axis motion sensor. Previous incarnations could only detect movement in two dimensions. The phone will come with a pre-installed piece of software that enables it to scan the sky for constellations to reputedly give "a completely new and unprecedented mobile experience".

The 904SH will hit Japanese stores in April this year. ®