"People's Choice" cameraphone competition

Photographers of all ages are invited to enter the Mayor of London's People's choice cameraphone competition, part of London's biggest free music festival, Rise: London United, taking place at Finsbury Park in July.

The photo competition encourages entrants to capture London’s diversity through their phone. [via Mobile Marketing Magazine].

Camera Phones Kill Memories

A strong rant from PCMag on families capturing graduation memories on camera phones instead of camcorders and digital cameras.

"A camera phone leaves you with one set of crappy images (don't even think about using it for video). A good digital camera will provide an endlessly shareable set of high-quality images and, potentially, quite passable video.

Ultimately, those seeking to capture memories need to think not only of the moment, but of the future. They need to imagine the day when they'll be sitting in their living room or den, laughing and crying over their digitally captured memories. If all is well they will be tears of nostalgia and happiness, not frustration that they should have used a #@%*#!! real camera."

How digital cameras and camera phones will affect our heritage is an interesting subject and has been written up before. cf related articles:

-- Cameraphone Insight

-- Snap unhappy - digital photography's dirty little secret

-- Capture the moment with eyes, not cameras

-- Picture Phones mark a change in social record-keeping

-- The future of digital cameras

-- Digital era 'a threat to memories'

-- How camera phones will affect print and digital cameras

World Cup tickets with RFID chips

To ensure maximum safety, the German government has introduced tickets with RFID chips, a panel to keep a bird's eye-view of WC security situations as well as finger printing devices for "fast identification."

According to PCWorld, "more than 3.5 million tickets for the 64 matches will be sold with an embedded RFID chip containing identification information that will be checked against a database as fans pass through entrance gates at all 12 stadiums".

[via RFID News via All Headline News]

Time's Cameraphone Photographer of the Year Contest

The Times has teamed up with Sony Ericsson to search for the country's best cameraphone photographer.

The winner will also get the chance to represent the UK as their shot will be entered into Sony Ericsson's International Cameraphone Photographer of the Year competition.

As well as the accolade, the winner will receive a whole host of prizes. Their shot will be printed in The Times. It'll also be displayed in a top London gallery along with other finalists from the competition. They'll spend a day with a Times photographer to learn tips from a master. And, what's more, they'll also win an all-expenses-paid trip to capture their very own news shots.

The Cameraphone Photographer of the Year competition is open until November. [via Alan Reiter's Cameraphone Report]

Samsung bans their own phone from HQ

In what sounds like a promotional sound bite, Samsung claims it's new model, the SCH-B570, has been banned from Samsung headquarters.

"8GB storage capacity is more than enough to steal all confidential data about our company," said Ki-Tae Lee, CEO of Samsung Electronics’ Telecommunications Network, reports Mobile Magazine.

Cameraphones have been barred from Samsung's factories as early as July 2003, when the company formely banned all employees and visitors from bringing in their camera phones, concerned over leakage of corporate information and industrial know-how.

iBuyRight turns cell phone into a social responsibility scanner

A wonderful project written up by Justin Oberman on Personal Democracy Forum.

"i BuyRight is a mobile phone application that displays social and environmental information about a product, enabling consumers to make purchases consciously aligned with their personal values.

After a product bar code is scanned with a cell phone, iBuyRight retrieves relevant information from a social and environmental issues database, then displays it on the cell phone screen in an easy-to-read format. ... the application aims to fulfill a consumer's need to know where a product comes from, how it is made, and the impact these practices have on the environment and communities. By facilitating informed purchases, iBuyRight gives consumers the power to put their money where their values are."

Mothers recruited as camera phone vigilantes

Mothers armed with camera phones are helping Manteca Police (California) collar young vandals trying to trash Woodward Park, reports the Manteca Bulletin .

"A sudden surge of vandalism to the playground equipment is prompting mothers using the park with their children to fight back. Their weapon of choice: cameraphones

“It’s a great help,” said Manteca Police crime prevention officer Rex Osborn. “Many of the images are pretty sharp and we’re using them with school resource officers and beat officers to try and identify those responsible.”

Other vigilante schemes:

-- Holla Back The Holla Back NYC website encourages women to photograph sexual harassers and post the photos for the world to see.

-- Harlow council uses MMS to catch vandals - The town is encouraging people to take pictures of anti-social acts on their mobile phones and then text them to a special number along with details of where the vandalism has occurred.

-- Snap a picture of a traffic offender - The Transport Ministry of Malaysia invited the public snap pictures of traffic offenders and send them to the Hall of Shame section of a newly launched road safety website.

Good reading:

-- Cell Phone Vigilantes - A well written and well rounded article by Bennett Gordon from Understanding the next revolution on cameraphones, citizen journalism, the privacy issues surrounding localisation and the availability (for a fee) of cell phone records.

Cambodian PM bans 3G phones in anti-porn drive

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has banned 3G mobile phones - for a suggested 10 years - after a complaint from his wife and her friends about receiving pornography on them, according to Reuters.

"I have written to the Minister of Telecommunications to delay the use of certain mobile phones," Hun Sen told an assembly of Buddhist monks in Phnom Penh on Friday. "We can wait 10 more years until we have managed to improve morality in society."

Anonymous 3G Video Calls

Mobile dating community Mobestar has launched the first inter-country anonymous 3G video call service, supported by Mobestar's Flexible Anonymous Communications Engine (FACE)Etook place yesterday between Germany and the UK.

Anonymous video calls over 3G have been technically and legally challenging, preventing web communities from extending their online operations into an increasingly profitable mobile video arena.

A patent application has been filed for this unique communications engine and the solution has already been approved by UK Telecoms' regulatory body, ICSTIS

[via Cellular News]

Cameraphone Contest Will Animate Wimbledon

Mobile Marketing reports on a cameraphone competition to be held at this year's Wimbledon tennis tournament.

"At this year's event, which runs from 26 June to 9 July, spectators will be able to use their cameraphones to send photos of their favourite Wimbledon moments to a giant, Robinsons-branded display that can be seen by the 60,000 fans waiting outside to gain entry each day.

The person submitting the image that best captures the atmosphere of the event will win a pair of VIP centre court tickets for a match later in the tournament. The best pictures will also be included in a mosaic image presented on the screen at the end of each day."

Bittorent goes Mobile

According to 21talks, a British college student claims to bring out what could be considered as the first Bitorrent client for cellphones.

..."David Hulbert, the project developer, warns that the current WizBit “is an unfinished version and will not fully work yet.” The first major release should hopefully be done by July 7, 2006.

Hollywood has nothing to worry about, so far. It would be prohibitive to download ‘Da Vinci Code‘ and would still be too expensive to even download an episode of ‘24‘ this way."

More details here for geeks

Shock magazine, Web site seeks consumer photos, videos

Hachette Filipacchi Media USA announced plans last March to launch a new magazine called Shock, which has been adapted from the French title Choc, according to FIPP.

"The visually driven Shock hopes to open up readers' eyes. The monthly will feature photographs of the frightening, the arousing, the weird and the beautiful.

According to the publisher, Shock plans to strive for interactivity. Each issue will include four pages dedicated to photos submitted by readers. Shock will also sell photos online and deliver pictures directly to phones.

The magazine will hit the newstands May 30 2006." [via Alan Reiter's Cameraphone Report and Moco News]

If the caption from the Shock website is anything to go by, this type of solicitation for citizen journalism participation is the worst kind, based on violence, humiliation, the plight of victims and scandal - and is as low as it goes This is cameraphone reporting at it's most debased level.

Iris Scanning Cell Phones a Reality

Eye-scanners may soon be used to verify cell phone users according to Xvista, a UK-based company which has developed the first portable iris scanner. [via Mobiledia]

In their own words:

xVista’s iris scanner discreetly and securely scans and maps the iris for individual characteristics. The iris is then registered on to a central database creating a template that can be checked against all further scans to verify the user’s identity.

The iris data is captured and processed by a unique algorithm designed specifically to operate on low power computing devices such as a camera equipped mobile phone. A standard, 256 Mb mobile phone memory card will be able to hold over 250,000 separate iris templates and from a database of 1,000,000 irises, it will take less than one second for it to verify an individual iris.

... Each human iris is unique. The chance of two irises matching is approximately 1 in 7 billion, offering unbeatable protection against fraud.

Sagem vectroTEL X8 crypto phone

Engadget Mobile has written up a new Sagem crypto camera phone, dubbed the vectroTEL X8.

... "Tri-band with a 240 x 320 pixel, 256k color display, Bluetooth, and 1.3 megapixel camera... Clearly, the most important feature however, is it's end-to-end call encryption via 1024-bit Diffie Hellman Key exchange and 128-bit AES encryption. Slap in a miniSD card / crypto module (with PIN activation) and you too can make "tamper proof" calls to uh, all the other nefarious peeps with vectroTEL handsets.

Mobile Marathon. A camera phone contest

Mobil Marathon is a camera phone contest, which takes place at the upcomming Roskilde Festival in Denmark.

Festival-goers are invited to create a story, based on five images taken with their camera phones.

Participants can edit their text and images up to a week after the last day of the festival after which the best stories will receive a prize. Prizes are also awarded during the festival for the best daily image.

With approximately 100.000 visitors annually, the Roskilde Festival is one of the largest music festivals i Europe. The festival runs from June 29 to July 2.

[reblogged from Guerilla Innovation]

Virgin Mobile Launches Wannabee Contest

Virgin Mobile UK has launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign satirising celebrity wannabees by offering someone a role in its next television ad, reports Brand Republic.

"Would-be-celebrities are encouraged to send in images of themselves via their mobile phone to 07734 999119 and to submit entry forms to Virgin Mobile stores by June 5.

Virgin Mobile's star will be chosen from a shortlist of 20 finalists and will be picked for their potential star quality.

The finalists will be invited to a grand final audition in London, which will be judged by a panel including a celebrity guest."

Doctors recognise apoplectic strokes via mobile video telephony

Apoplectic strokes can be recognised via video telephony with a mobile phone, reports DMEurope. "These are the results of the 'Fast UMTS' apoplectic stroke study that the University of Twente has conducted with Vodafone and a number of doctors and neurologists throughout the Netherlands". [via SmartMobs]

Citizen Photographers and the Da Vinci Code

Here's an interesting idea for newspapers from Steve Outing on E-Media Tidbits.

"Online photo sharing site Webhsots.com has compiled a special album pegged to the May 19 release of the Da Vinci Code movie. The site's photo editors have sifted through users' photos and compiled an album of more than 300 photos that cover 50 locations and artifacts that are part of the movie, such as the Louvre and the Vatican Stairs.

This should give you some ideasfor similarly sifting and compiling the submissions of "citizen photographers" on your news site. Obviously, many news sites do this sort of thing when disaster strikes, taking the best citizen submissions and putting them in a gallery.

This Webshots.com feature reminds us that there are events and stories of less gravitas that could benefit from this treatment."

MobileVideoNet: A bluetooth broadcasting system

Muze and MobileVideoNet have been developing a new bluetooth broadcasting system. Instead of manually sending files this new system automatically pushes random 3GP video to mobile phones.

The system consists of independ units searching for and connecting to bluetooth devices and pushing it's content. Because they can easily add or remove units, they can now also create bigger VideoAreas.

The units are also "smart": All units are keeping track of which video has been sent and remembers phones that have rejected a file to prevent spamming.

With this new bluetooth broadcasting system they offer more 1MB Videos to more people on more diverse locations for longer periods of time.

Channel 4 debuts mobile video news

Channel 4 has launched a mobile service providing video news bulletins to customers on the go, reports Netimperative. The Channel 4 News Mobile servicewent live this week, powered by ITN Multimedia.

... The service features bulletins, 'Hot Clips' and 'Best of Show' clips drawn from Channel 4's three news programmes - News at Noon, the 7pm programme and More4 News.

There's no sign-up, no subscription and - to mark the launch of the service - all clips are free to download. (Note: network charges may apply).

To access the Channel 4 Mobile Portal, simply text MOBILE to 83188 and you will receive a link to the service.

Swiss authorities ask public for camphone shots of hooligans

For the first time, Swiss authorities have made a public appeal to the public to submit cameraphone shots or videos of the hooligans rioting - following a football match last Saturday night (between the Basel and Zurich teams) - in hope to identify the culprits. [via Nouvel Obs (in French)]

Cameraphone video of gang rape erased - suspects go free

Four youths suspected of gang-raping a 16-year-old schoolgirl in a Berlin park last week and filming the the sexual attack with cameraphone have been released, fuelling anger in the German capital, reports Antara News.

"The youths, aged 13 to 15, allegedly attacked their victim as she walked home from school.

While allegedly gang-raping the girl, the youths are reported to have filmed the sexual attack with a cameraphones. Media reports say the four later boasted about the rape to other school children and sent copies of the video to friends.

Police who detained the four earlier this week have so far not found any film footage of the alleged rape. There is suspicion the video pictures may have been erased and mobile phones of the suspects are being analysed by experts in a bid to retrieve any pictures."

Korea launches commercial HSDPA service, 3G+

Telecoms Korea reports on it's first commercial HSDPA (High Speed Data Packet Access) service ‘3G+’ on mobile phones.

... The first HSDPA- enabled mobile phone is a Samsung model (W200). See also Samsung's press release.

Is it safe to snap strangers?

Wired offers some advice as to when it's safe (or not) to snap a stranger. [via
Scoopt]

"As long as your subjects don't have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" - meaning they're not somewhere they'd never expect a camera to be - you're on pretty solid ground. Even if you photograph them while they're on private property, you're in the clear - just make sure they're in plain view and you're not trespassing.

However, there are exceptions. As the article notes:

For example, if you happen to catch a couple of underage teens having sex in the park, don't shoot or you'll effectively be a child pornographer. Taking a picture of public art can theoretically violate copyright law, though only the most dim-witted artist would object to the free publicity. And, of course, some parts of military installations and nuclear plants are off-limits, too, for national security reasons.

There are also different laws in different places, so for example in the UK harassment is a crime, while in some parts of the US it's illegal to take photographs that might be used for "gratification".

The biggest dangers, though, are when you publish photographs:

Don't write a caption that misidentifies someone or is unduly mocking - your subject could sue you for placing him in a "false light." Or let's say you've started a blog, and you take a snapshot of someone at a bus stop, then Photoshop it into a banner ad promoting your site. This implies the subject endorses your work, and she could file suit for publicity rights - a cut of the enormous revenues from your vast blog empire. That's unlikely, though. In general, only big celebs with bankable images are rich and self-important enough to hire a lawyer to sue your ass.

Rise of the web video star

The quick way to find fame is with a hit video blog. James Knight monitors an explosion of online creativity for The Times Online.

... "Just as blogging liberated publishing, videocasting is liberating television, dissolving the divide between professional and amateur, creating a new galaxy of stars with a potential global audience that few television stations can match."

Live shots of Samsung's 10MP cameraphone

Check out Akihabara News for pictures of Samsung's 10MP cameraphone, shot by their team ath the COMM Korea 2006 expo.

Related post: Samsung unveils world first 10 megapixel camera phone.

Search By Camera! delivers product data from cellphone pics

According to PC Magazine via Engadget Mobile, "a new cameraphone-based image recognition service called Search By Camera! - developed by Bandai Networks and D2 Communications - is promising to help consumers acquire info on products by simply snapping a picture while shopping.

According to a release from Evolution Robotics, "consumers can point their camera phones at virtually any printed image of a product, take a picture and the camera will grab a pattern and match it a growing database of product patterns and images on a remote server. That server will match the ID up with product information, pricing and more and deliver it back to the cell phone.

"We strongly believe that image recognition technologies will be a key element not only in robotics, but also in mobile search," Yutaka Yamamoto, general manager of the Asia division of Evolution Robotics, said in a statement.

Nokia building dedicated mobile TV network

Digit News reports that Nokia will offer a service management product for Digita Oy's DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting - Handheld) network.

"Digita is building the network, which can be used by mobile operators to deliver mobile TV to mobile phone users.

Some operators already offer mobile TV but they typically do so by streaming the content over broadband 3G networks. Many operators say they're interested in migrating the services to dedicated networks, like the one Digita is building, so that they can reserve bandwidth on their 3G networks for other services and to offer higher quality mobile TV."

Placeshifting Devices Could Threaten Mobile Video Services

As more consumers use products such as the Slingbox to get "anywhere access" to their premium and personal content, so-called "placeshifting" technologies may face opposition from wireless carriers, according to a new study from ABIresearch. [via Reiter's Camera Phone Report]

"The ability to stream pay TV from a set-top box and digital content from a home PC over the Internet to a variety of devices has the potential to disrupt new content services being delivered by mobile operators."

AT&T & MobiTV offer live TV to Wi-Fi hotspot users

AT&T announced Wednesday that it's working with MobiTV, which provides mobile video programming to cell phones, to deliver live TV to its Wi-Fi hotspot networks across the country. News.com reports.

"The service will enable AT&T customers to view live television on their laptops or other Wi-Fi enabled devices while connected to one of AT&T's Wi-Fi hot spots. MobiTV's service, which includes 15 channels of news, sports, entertainment and full-length music videos, will be available this month at nearly 7,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hot spots.

AT&T operates about 11,000 hot spots nationwide in airports, coffee shops and book stores. MobiTV already has deals with cellular operators, Cingular Wireless and Sprint Nextel, to offer TV on cell phones."