Cellphones Let Shoppers Point, Click and Purchase

The New York Times on mobile barcode shopping.

Shoppers will soon be able to stand outside the designer Norma Kamali’s boutique in Manhattan, point a phone at merchandise in the window and buy it — even late at night when the store is closed.

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Future Barcodes Could Be Based on Human Scent

It seems that the future evolution of barcodes could be based on human scent, or so says a report on the Spectrocopynow. One advantage of scented barcodes could be that children would be less liable to lose their garments. Mobile Barcodes Innovations reports.

As any parent knows, children have a nasty habit of losing gloves, hats, coats, and even shoes. Today it's possible to mark such clothing with 2D barcodes that can be read and recognized with any good camera phone, avoiding confusion when items are accidently mixed up.

Such a solution, however, requires patient parents to create the appropriate identification barcodes (with free software that is available online), print the codes onto fabric labels, and then sew those labels into potentially mislaid items.

Once found, the codes are 'scanned' using software on any suitable camera-equipped mobile phone, and the garments can be returned to their rightful owners.

Read full article.

Camera Phones, paper 'chips' may fight disease

George Whitesides, a chemistry professor at Harvard University, has developed a prototype for paper "chip" technology that could be used in the developing world to cheaply diagnose deadly diseases such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, hepatitis and gastroenteritis. CNN reports.

Patients put a drop of blood on one side of the slip of paper, and on the other appears a colorful pattern in the shape of a tree, which tells medical professionals whether the person is infected with certain diseases.

It's not entirely unlike a home pregnancy test, Whitesides said, but the chips are much smaller and cheaper, and they test for multiple diseases at once. They also show how severely a person is infected rather than producing only a positive-negative reading.

Since people in remote parts of Africa and Asia often have to travel great distances by public transit or foot to reach a medical clinic, patients simply can take photos of the chips with cell phones and then send them to larger cities for diagnosis.

Read full article.

Image from Popsci.com. Watch George Whitesides talk on TED.

Judge jails men for pointing cameras at jury during murder trial

Two men who terrified a Cuyahoga County jury by pointing a camera and a camera phone at them last week during an aggravated murder trial were jailed Wednesday for contempt of court. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

One of the men, a friend of aggravated-murder suspect Dwayne Davenport, recorded images of the jury and prosecutors for eight minutes last Wednesday before jurors noticed, and Common Pleas Judge Nancy Margaret Russo declared a mistrial.

Russo sentenced the two men for what she described as "intimidating and frightening my jury" and making the jurors and others fearful of jury service.

Andre Block, 28, of Cleveland, got 60 days in jail for using his Flip camera to create the video. His public defender told Russo that Block knew Davenport faced a lengthy prison sentence, so he was using the camera "to preserve a memory of his friend."

Davenport's cousin Dwight Davenport, 28, of East Cleveland, was sentenced to 30 days in jail. His cell phone did not contain images of the jury, but the judge said his intent was clear. "You were seen by more than one person pointing it at the jury," Russo said. "You knew full well what you were doing."

Dwight Davenport said he was using his cell phone to send a text message to his girlfriend and didn't mean to cause a panic.

[via The Crime Report]

Anonymous Citizen Journalists Receive Polk Award for Video taken with a cameraphone

The anonymous Iranian citizens who captured and distributed the shooting by a government sniper of Neda Agha Soltan, 27, during last year’s Iranian re-election protests have received one of journalism’s highest honors — the Polk Award.

The announcement marks the first time that the award was given to an anonymous news source.

The video was taken with a cameraphone.

[via NewTeeVee]

Mobile barcode breakthrough means we may soon see them everywhere

A wonderful guide from VentureBeat on Barcodes.

Mobile barcodes seem to be about to go mainstream, with Nokia and Sony Ericsson pre-installing barcode readers on many of their handsets. Barcodes in mobile are generally used to retrieve web content. For example a barcode on a poster can be scanned and used to retrieve a web page where the user can win a prize.

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this week, Virginia-based Neustar announced the first clearinghouse for barcodes, which allows barcodes from any advertiser or brand to be linked to web content independently of the barcode reader or service provider being used.

Google Goggles to Translate Text in Photos

At the Mobile World Congress, Google CEO Eric Schmidt showed off a new prototype of Google Goggles — Google’s experimental Android visual search application — that can translate text captured in photos. [via Mashable]

Watch video demo above.

Related:

-- Google Goggles blocked over privacy concerns

-- Search by Sight with Google Goggles

Kodak Seeks Ban on Apple, BlackBerry Imports into U.S.

A federal agency that oversees trade disputes will decide whether to block imports from iPhone-maker Apple and BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion over digital-camera technology that Kodak says infringes on its patent rights.

[via Mobiledia]

'Sexting In America: When Privates Go Public'. MTV Explores Pitfalls Of Sexting

What seems like an innocent, flirtatious teenage gesture — sending an explicit picture of yourself to a boyfriend — could land you in way more trouble than you might imagine. MTV news reports.

That was the message of MTV News' half-hour special, 'Sexting In America: When Privates Go Public', in which we took a closer look at the dangers of sexting and the serious repercussions for the people who send and receive naked pictures of peers on their mobile phones and other devices.

Read full article for personal and heartbreaking sexting stories as well as TV special trailer.

Motorola Invests in Mobile Barcode Company

Motorola's venture arm said it invested an undisclosed sum in Scanbuy, a company that offers mobile barcode products and services.

With the investment, Motorola joins Microsoft and other companies in pursuing the mobile barcode market.

[via PC World]

Bar Codes Ride Again - on Mobile Phones

An interesting article in Business Week on the many ways bar codes are are being used for cell-phone users to view ads, coupons, and other information instantly.

The Weather Channel is using bar codes to deliver maps, forecasts, and severe weather alerts. Universal Pictures is using mobile bar codes to promote its coming thriller Repo Men. Later this month, a Hearst magazine will use the technology to provide additional information to readers. And mobile bar code technology in various forms has recently been used by search engine owner Google, Web portal Yahoo!, sportswear maker Nike, and packaged foods maker Frito-Lay.

The origin of Happy Slapping

This very interesting article from China Daily, explains at one point the origin of Happy Slapping.

Britain, in the 1990s, had to deal with this issue, after a popular advert for a soft drink (Tango) featured a fat orange man who crept up and slapped people who partook of the fizzy beverage. It led to teens imitating the fat orange man and in some cases perforating the eardrums of the unfortunate victims.

It was called "happy slapping" and proved to be anything but. It spread across Europe, morphing into school ground violence that was captured on camera phones and disseminated on the Web. The term was then used to cover any form of violence or sexual misdemeanor that was captured on video. Now, those who film the action are held culpable and punished, while those who host the videos can also be held responsible for their actions.

Other theories on the origin of Happy Slapping

Infrared cameras determine taste quality of Japanese beef

According to Switched, your cameraphone could soon become an essential tool for any trip to the grocery store as scientists in Japan are developing ways to use infrared cameras for more accurately determining which slices of beef are tastier than others.

Read full article.