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Emoji (Japanese: 絵文字) is the [[Japanese language|Japanese]] term for the picture characters or [[emoticon]]s used in Japanese wireless messages and webpages. Originally meaning [[pictograph]], the word literally means [[wiktionary:絵|e]] "picture" + [[wiktionary:文字|moji]] "letter". The characters are used much like [[emoticon]]s elsewhere, but a wider range is provided, and the icons are standardized and built into the handsets. Some emoji are very specific to Japanese culture, such as a bowing (apologizing) businessman, a face wearing a [[Surgical mask|face mask]] or a group of emoji representing popular foods ([[ramen]] noodles, [[dango]], [[onigiri]], [[Japanese curry]], [[sushi]]). The three main Japanese operators, [[NTT DoCoMo]], [[au (mobile phone operator)|au]] and [[SoftBank Mobile]] (formerly [[Vodafone]]), have each defined their own variants of emoji.

[[File:絵文字sample.png]]

Although typically only available in Japan, due to the nature of software development, the characters and code in order to use emoji is often physically present in phones, and some phones, including the [[Apple Inc.|Apple]] [[iPhone]], allow access to the symbols outside Japanese carriers. They have also started appearing in emailing services such as [[Gmail]] (accessed via [[Google Labs]]).

===Encoding Of Emoji===

For [[NTT DoCoMo]]'s [[i-mode]], each emoji symbol is drawn on a 12x12 [[pixel]] grid. When transmitted, emoji symbols are specified as a two-[[byte]] sequence, in the private-use range E63E through E757 in the [[Unicode]] character space, or F89F through F9FC for [[Shift-JIS]]. The basic specification has 176 symbols, with 76 more added in phones that support [[C-HTML]] 4.0.

au's emoji pictograms are specified using the [[HTML element#Images and Objects|IMG tag]]. SoftBank Mobile emojis are wrapped between [[Shift Out and Shift In characters|SI/SO escape sequences]], and support colors and animation. DoCoMo's emoji are the most compact to transmit while au's version is more flexible based on open standards.
 
There exist two proposals for encoding the Emoji in [[Unicode]] and [[ISO/IEC 10646]], calling for adding characters to the standards to be able to represent the full set.
One is by [[Google]] and [[Apple Inc.]], calling for adding 674 characters to the standards to be able to represent the full set.<ref>http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3582.pdf</ref><ref>http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3583.pdf</ref><ref>http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3585.pdf</ref>
A revision and extension of this proposal is provided as a joint proposal by the German ([[DIN]]) and Irish national bodies.<ref>http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n3607.pdf</ref>

==See also==
* [[絵文字 Conlang]]

==References==
<references/>

== External links ==
* [http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/service/imode/make/content/pictograph/ NTT DoCoMo: Emoji]
* [http://www.au.kddi.com/ezfactory/tec/spec/3.html au by KDDI: Emoji], [http://www.au.kddi.com/ezfactory/tec/spec/icon_mono.html Type 1]
* [http://www.au.kddi.com/ezfactory/tec/spec/icon_color.html 2] (in Japanese)
* [http://surf-style.us/manual3.htm Comparison table across all three companies] (in Japanese)
* [http://whatjapanthinks.com/2007/07/12/japanese-cell-phone-emoji-graphical-icon-usage/ Translated survey on emoji usage patterns]
* [http://sites.google.com/site/unicodesymbols/Home/emoji-symbols Emoji Symbols] - The proposals for encoding of Emoji symbols as Unicode characters.

[[Category:Japanese]]


(This page incorporates text from Wikipedia.)