Freeing Those Snapshots Trapped Inside the Cellphone

For years, cellphone users could get pictures from their phones to the Web, but for most people, learning how to use those services is the digital equivalent of a trip to the D.M.V. The New York Times reports.

"... Carriers and device manufacturers have only lately figured out that users need a single button that says, “Send my new photo now.”

Verizon Wireless in the coming weeks will introduce just such a service. Verizon was not ready to release details about its plan, but Alltel, which Verizon plans to purchase, recently started its Pic Transfer service. For $3 a month, each time a user snaps a photo, a box appears on the cellphone screen asking the shooter if he wants to send the photo to Photobucket, Flickror whatever online service the user prefers.

How would the phone know which Web site to suggest? The company has eliminated even that small measure of guesswork. Subscribers can bring their phones to an Alltel store where a representative asks the questions and does all the work. Customers who are not near a store can set it up on Alltel’s Web site."

Telephoto mobile phone lens hack

Telephoto mobile phone lens hack by UK artist Kerrin Mansfield with more the photographic results here.

[via Jan Chipchase for future perfect]

Polo Ralph Lauren to launch shopping by cell phone

Polo Ralph Lauren is to be the first luxury retailer to launch a mobile commerce site, reports Reuters.

... "The apparel maker will begin placing special codes in print ads, mailings and store windows along with its sponsorship of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, which begins later this month.

Shoppers can download special software to camera-phones to scan the codes and be directed to a phone-friendly version of a Ralph Lauren website, where they can shop, watch tennis videos and read company content."

Postures of Use

[via Jan Chipchase's future perfect]

Mobile phone snaps tell Big Macs from broccoli

A team at the University of Tokyo in Japan has come up with a way for our cameraphones to help us eat a balanced diet. Techradar reports.

"The researchers have developed image-recognition software that can tell meat and potatoes from fish and rice and can ignore any non-food items in an image, the point being to establish what food groups are present in a meal merely by analysing a photo of it.

The idea is that users take a snap of whatever they eat using a camera or cameraphone and have the software keep a meal diary what they've been consuming. Accuracy is claimed to be around 90 per cent."

Nike lets users design trainers via mobile phone

According to NMA, Nike has launched a service across Europe to enable consumers to design their own trainers based on pictures taken using a camera phone.

The PhotoiD service encourages consumers to take a picture of any subject using their camera phone, which is then sent via MMS to a short code.

A personalised picture of a trainer is sent back which features the predominant colours of the photo. "

Korea protests a gadget proving ground

When tens of thousands of Koreans converged in the center of Seoul recently for a mass protest against the new president, many were clutching two vital items: a candle and a mobile phone loaded with snazzy features. Stuff reports.

The protest movement, which started in early May to oppose US beef imports, has since become a stage for a broad range of political grievances against the government – from high fuel prices to health-care privatization and the cost of education.

The month-long series of gatherings has also been a valuable testing ground for the latest communication devices, gadgets and websites.

... With powerful camera phones, demonstrators are able to shoot photos and videos that they can instantly upload on internet sites thanks to high-speed wireless technology."

Security cameras and a mobile phone help man track down mysterious house guest

A homeless woman was recently arrested in Tokyo after living undetected in a man's closet for a year and sneaking food out of his kitchen. It was the missing food that tipped him off, so he installed some security cameras in his home to transmit images to his phone. Some motion was detected, so he called the police, and soon enough they spotted her in the closet -- where she had planted a mattress.

[via Engadget]

Mobile phone pictures used to diagnose STDs online

The Mirror reports that embarrassing sex diseases can now be diagnosed by pictures sent from mobile phones.

"People too shy to visit an STD clinic can upload images of their intimate problems - and get an almost instant medical opinion. The pioneering service allows men and women to reveal worrying lumps or rashes without the ordeal of a face-to-face consultation.

The pictures will be examined by doctors, who will send out any advice or prescription by post or email."

Posing Like TV Series Characters

Saturday night, my son and his friends thought the lighting in the kitchen was interesting. So they took some pictures, posing like TV series' characters on the covers of DVDs. I think they're just great! A new fad? In all honesty, they didn't use a cameraphone, but they could have. A couple more pictures here.

Cellphones used for medical imaging?

A team of engineers at the University of California at Berkeley has developed a technique for transmitting medical images via cellphones.

This potentially could bring medical imaging to the 'three-quarters of the world's population which has no access to ultrasounds, X-rays, magnetic resonance images, and other medical imaging technology.'

The lead researcher said that this new system would make imaging technology inexpensive and accessible in non-industrialized countries.

[via Roland Piquipaille's Technology Trends]

Nude Pictures Over Cell Phones Now Part of Teen Dating

Well that title certainly got my attention.

The Associated Press reports that Central Ohio teens are now using their cell phones to send nude pictures of themselves and don't see anything wrong with it, leaving Mark Raiff, a principal at Columbus' Olentangy Liberty High School, speechless.

"Detective Brian Marvin of the FBI Cyber Crime Task Force says he has seen everything from a strip tease to explicit sex sent by cell phone. He says the content sometimes makes its way to Internet Web sites for others to see.

Experts say teens often don't understand the dangers. They suggest parents pay attention to their kids' phones."

Related:

-- Colorado Middle school kids take camphone pics of themselves nude

-- Students Traded Nude Photos Over Cell Phones

-- Alabama Middle school students swap nude cell phone photos

Cell camera turned medical microscope

Doctors and biophysicists at the University of California have developed a device that turns a common cell phone camera into a medical microscope. ABC Local reports.

"Say you're in a remote or undeveloped part of the world, and you have to diagnose an illness. Even if you could find a microscope, you don't have a doctor to look through it, but you do have a cell phone. What if you could attach the phone to the microscope, call another cell phone halfway around the world, and have the doctor with this phone see what the microscope sees? That's the idea behind CellScope.

"We clip it into a modified belt-holder," says Dan Fletcher at the University of California at Berkeley. And they add other off-the-shelf parts to hold the cost down to less than $50. It began as a simple class project for graduate students of Fletcher, who is Associate Professor of Bioengineering."

10 practical uses for your camera phone

Blorge.com's 10 practical uses for your cameraphone. They all make sense. But this one caught my attention:

If you have a suspicious wife, husband, girlfriend or boyfriend and have to stay late at work, take a snapshot of yourself next to a clock and calendar, then MMS the photo to your sweetheart.

Picture Message of Escaped Terrorist Sent to 3.9m mobiles

Singapore's three mobile phone operators - SingTel, StarHub and MI - are sending out picture messages of an escaped fugitive to 3.9 million subscribers, police said, in a massive manhunt.

Terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari acted alone when he escaped a detention centre last Wednesday.

More than 54,000 posters and leaflets with the Mas Selamat's pictures and description have been placed at train and bus stations, shopping malls, housing estates and distributed by grassroots leaders and community volunteers. They urge members of the public to call the police if they spot him."

[SMS Text News via The Straits Times. Picture from Reuters]

N-Gage to make use of your phone's camera and GPS capabilities

NokNok interviewed Will Shen, the head of Production for N-Gage in North America who revealed that "the Finnish company intends to develop games which will make use of the imaging and GPS capabilities on a handset.

Shen explained an N-Gage game could potentially use clever techniques to interpret the histogram extracted from a photograph to interact with characters in a game. Shen’s example being, “a monster you could feed photographs”, presumably requiring you to take shots of appropriate real-life items while you’re out and about.

According to ta href="http://noknok.tv/news/exclusive-n-gage-camera-games-and-gps-action/">NokNok, Shen also said that Nokia is seriously looking at location-based gaming and stressed that the concept is not a gimmick, but one which focuses on innovation."

[via Asia C/net]

One in five babies has social network profile

Parents in the UK are increasingly using mobile phones and the internet to both announce and give their babies an online presence in the world, according to research carried out by Orange. TechRadar reports.

"Orange discovered that one in five new parents sent a camera-phone image of their newborn baby to friends and family within 10 minutes of it being born. Meanwhile, up to half took pictures of their babies within an hour. The survey questionned 1,000 new and expectant parents.

Orange also discovered that one in five parents has created a social networking profile for their baby – sometimes before it’s even been born. That’s over 57,000 babies with a Facebook, MySpace or Bebo page.

According to the research, it's not just newborns being 'snapped' either. One in seven parents have sent pictures of their unborn baby’s ultrasound scan via their mobile or email. That means over 100,000 babies every year are seen by friends and family before they're even born."

Top Photos Older Japanese People Take With Their Cellphones

Japanese TV show Ranking Paradise went to Sugamo, a shopping area of Tokyo that is sometimes called “Harajuku for old people,” asking pedestrians over the age of 50 to show off photos they recently took with their camera phones. [via Japan Probe]

Top 7 cellphone pics taken by older people in Sugamo:

1. Landscapes / Scenery
2. Grandchildren
3. Oneself
4. Pets
5. Akihiro Miwa (it’s lucky to have his picture)
6. Memorable Food
7. Illuminations

Watch video.

Cellphone can read to you from pictures it takes

For a blind or visually impaired person, the Nokia N98 offers great promise: It's a liberating day-to-day tool that grants access to printed materials not otherwise easily available. USA Today reports.

"A sightless person can use the phone to snap a picture of a menu, book, printed receipt or business card. Software on the phone processes the words on those items and reads the text aloud in a synthesized voice. The device can even let a blind person know if paper currency is a $5 or a $20 bill.

The candy-bar-shaped Nokia houses an extremely capable digital camera - 5 megapixels, auto-focusing, high-intensity flash. But it's the character-recognition and text-to-speech software from KNFB Reading Technology that makes it so powerful. KNFB is a joint venture of the National Federation of the Blind and Kurzweil Technologies."

A collaborative animation competition

To help create a new animation for Nokia stores, Universal Everything is throwing a collaborative animation competition.

To enter, all you need to do is take pictures of you, or anyone you know, holding a blank piece of paper. Upload the pics to the contest's Flickrsite and the design wizards at Universal Everything will draw cell animation onto each blank frame.

The aim is to engage thousands of people around the world and create a truly global animation project that keeps growing and growing.

The contributor who gets the most frames into the final animation wins a Nokia N95 8GB. That's good, but the real prize would be getting to see your shot in one of Universal Everything's industry-leading animations.

[via Josh Spear]

SnapTell Launches Mobile Movie Explorer

SnapTell made its Mobile Movie Explorer available for general consumer use today.

Consumers can now use their camera phone to easily Snap a picture of a DVD cover, send the picture to SnapTell using MMS messaging and get back information about the movie on their cell phone.

The information consumers receive about movies on their cell phones includes reviews, DVD prices, run times, description of the movie and a link to Amazon to buy the movie.

[press release via NewTeeVee]

Mobile phone photos rescue lost hikers

Images sent to park rangers from a mobile phone were instrumental in rescuing three people lost in rugged country in a Victorian national park, reports News.com.au.

"A 46-year-old man was hiking with his son and niece, both aged 14, in the Grampians National Park in western Victoria yesterday when they became disoriented.

The man, identified as Mark Valentine, called emergency services about 5.30pm last night and later sent photos of the area to Parks Victoria staff from his mobile phone.

Grampians National Park ranger Andrew Dennis said after scrutinising the photos he identified the mountain range in the background as Redman's Bluff.

Staff looked at other photos of the area to confirm the mountain range and used mapping software to home in on the trio's likely location.

They were able to concentrate the search area to about one square kilometre."

Astrophotography with an Apple iPhone

An advanced amateur astronomer, Michael Weasner, took a photograph of the full moon on Christmas Eve, 2007 with a Meade ETX telescope and an Apple iPhone.

This photograph, which is not the first instance of an astronomical photo with an Apple iPhone, nevertheless shows what an experienced amateur astronomer can do with a small telescope and the camera in Apple's mobile phone.

[via The MacObserver]

Czech CSSD to use mobile phones while electing president-press

Czech senior opposition Social Democrat (CSSD) deputies and senators may have to bring their photo-capable mobile phones with them to Prague Castle, the residence of Czech presidents, when the Czech parliament will be electing the new president in February, the daily Hospodarske noviny writes today.

"There is a possibility that the CSSD leadership will want to control whether CSSD legislators really voted for Jan Svejnar and not for incumbent President Vaclav Klaus with the help of photographs made by mobile phones, the paper says."

[via CeskéNoviny.cz]

Samsung G800 Stars in Opera ‘Nibelungenring'

Samsung's G800, a 5 mega-pixel camera phone with 3x optical zoom, is playing a key role in the opera ‘Wagners Nibelungenring for children’, reports Newswire Korea.

Cell phones have played in many concerts but "it is the first time a mobile phone is playing a key supporting role in an opera and is even mentioned in the official casting list.

Nibelungenring for Children has been playing at the Vienna State Opera from November 17, already attracting 1,000 audience. It plans to run until the end of this year.

“This independent play is meant to spark children's interest for Wagner’s world. With Samsung’s unique camera phone we're able to give a mobile phone an active role in an opera for the first time and thus create a link from virtual mythology to today’s reality," said Matthias von Stegmann.

... The SGH-G800 fulfills several roles in the play: It takes a picture of the sleeping Bruennhilde, it shows the picture to Siegfried and is therefore essential for the progression of the story.

Appeals Court says witness intimidated by camera phone photos

Pointing a camera phone at a witness waiting to testify in court amounts to intimidation. [via the The Associated Press]

"That's the ruling from the state Appeals Court in the case of a man awaiting trial on drug charges. David Casiano was convicted of witness intimidation last year after he pointed a camera phone at an undercover Boston police officer who was in Dorchester District Court to testify against him.

The officer said he was concerned that someone involved in drug dealing would recognize him if Casiano posted his photo on the Internet, which could put him and his family in danger."

Strictly No Photography website

Strictly No Photography, a website dedicated to nothing but photos taken inside places you're not supposed to take photos. Art galleries, government buildings, religious sites, science and technology exhibits, all user-submitted by characters with names like Sir Veillance.

[dump trumpet via Core77

Make it a safe Halloween

Parents who let their children go trick-or-treating alone might want to equip the candy-hunters with cell phones. That way they can call or text home to say “I’m on Second Street, heading toward the library” and parents will know exactly where they are. McAlester News-Capital offers some practical advice.

Cell phones have alarm clocks, which can be programmed to go off when it’s time for the trick-or-treaters to head home.

Also, emergency numbers can be pre-programmed into the phone so children can get help quickly.

“A cell phone is a great safety tool for kids during Halloween,” said Michael Edwards, director of sales for U.S. Cellular. “If you keep it fun for them, they’ll be more likely to use it. Invite children to use camera phones to take pictures of their friends’ costumes or their favorite decorations. Get kids interested in the phone and they’ll be more comfortable using it when they need to.”

Thrrum Visual Browser's 1-click Camphone Search

A new service called Thrrum Visual Browser sounds very much like MMS & Buy, blogged about a few days ago, MMS & Buy is a service launched by a music label that enables music fans to get information about music, simply by taking a photo of the CD case and sending it via MMS to their server.

Thrrum Visual Browser enables camera phone users to search and browse relevant information by simply pointing their camera phones at products and other objects of interest in their physical environment.

In their own words: - Books, billboards, product labels, restaurant menus.... With Thrrum Visual Browser and the included Cameraphone Search service, you can search and browse information related to the world around you with your camera phone. Thrrum Visual Browser provides 1-click access to the Web, comparison shopping, and more.

Thrrum Visual Browser software is available for download from www.thrrum.com.

[Press release ]

HP offering color-matching technology for cameraphones

Hewlett-Packard is turning turn mobile phones into shopping advisers with a color-matching prototype technology. cio reports.

"The Color Match mobile service technology combines color science, imaging science and mobile networking technology to match colors that complement each other and provide product advice over a cell phone.

Users take a photograph of themselves while holding a specialized color chart under their faces. The picture is sent using multimedia messaging service to an "advisory service" on a server. Software on the server seeks out corrections in the image; it locates the face, adjusts lighting and calibrates the color.

Based on the analysis, the advisory service sends a return short-message service recommending what cosmetic color and shades would best match the skin color. The service returned recommendations in a matter of seconds in the demonstration.

Among other applications, the service will be able to make recommendations to match and recommend colors for ties, pants and suits, Bhatti said. "Images can be taken with any cell phone camera, and the mobile service will work with any service provider."

Related article in ITPro

Mirror Mirror on the Wall, who do I look like most of all?

Normally used for security purposes, face and image recognition technologies are making their way into other, more entertaining, fields. One service, kaocheki lets people send a digital photo of themselves via cell phone to find out which celebrity they most resemble. The Japan Times reports.

"Taking full advantage of the high-resolution camera phones that are everywhere in Japan, two-year-old mobile content provider J-Magic Inc. launched the service on a trial basis in late April. By early June, more than 22 million users had tried the service.

"I didn't expect it to become such a big hit," said Takuya Miyata, the 34-year-old founder and chief executive officer of J-Magic. "The popularity has spread through mixi (Japan's top social networking site) and blogs. I didn't do much promotion."

Japan tries cameraphone diet scheme

The AP reports that Japan has launched their own (government funded) version of myFood - a service offered in 2005 to Sprint camera phone users, enabling them to take a picture of the food they eat at each meal, and send it in for review by a nutritional advisor.

"Public health insurance offices in the Osaka region in western Japan have launched the service on a trial basis. About 100 heart patients signed up in the first year, followed by diabetes and obesity patients in the second.

Osaka is using a system developed by Asahi Kasei Corp., a Tokyo-based chemical and medical equipment manufacturer. The system is operating at about 150 health care providers and local governments around the country, company official Naoki Yoshimura said.

Nutritionists can work with photos from one day's meals to several weeks' worth, he said. Results come back in three days. Participants also can log onto a website to get more dietary information and upload photos from digital cameras."

Camera phone pioneer ponders the impact

The chilling sounds of gunfire on the Virginia Tech campus; the hateful taunts from Saddam Hussein's execution; the racist tirade of comedian Michael Richards. Those videos, all shot with cell phone cameras and seen by millions, are just a few recent examples of the power now at the fingertips of the masses. Even the man widely credited with inventing the camera phone in 1997, Philippe Kahn, is awed by the cultural revolution he helped launch. The Associated Press reports.

"It's had a massive impact because it's just so convenient," said Philippe Kahn.

... As Kahn heard the smattering of stories in recent years about assailants scared off by a camera phone or criminals who were nabbed later because their faces or their license plates were captured on the gadget, he said, I started feeling it was better than carrying a gun."

And though he found the camera-phone video of the former Iraqi dictator's execution disturbing, Kahn said the gadget helped "get the truth out."

Kahn also thinks the evolution of the camera phone has only just begun.

He wouldn't discuss details of his newest startup, Fullpower Technologies Inc., which is in stealth mode working on the "convergence of life sciences and wireless," according to its Web site.

But, Kahn said, it will, among other things, "help make camera phones better."

Previously:

-- Who invented the camera phone? It depends

-- Baby's arrival inspires birth of cellphone camera — and societal evolution

Camera phone bumblebee watch

Scotland's Bumblebee Conservation Trust, in what is considered a first, will invite the public to send in bee sightings so it can build up a map of where its 25 species are.

Dave Goulson, of the trust, said people would get help identifying the different species.

He said: "People with digital cameras or a camera on their mobile phones can send us pictures of the bumblebees in their garden and we will send them back an identification. If people send us the date and a postcode of where the bumblebee was seen then we will be able put together a national map."

Related - Cellphones identify birds The Swiss Association for the Protection of Birds has launched a short code enabling mobile uses to connect to a WAP site, so that bird lovers can identify a birds' song by browsing through a database.

Cameraphone prevents Kidnap attempts

Talk about the power of media--and multimedia, writes C/net Asia.

"On Saturday morning, the Philippine Tourism Authority general manager and his family narrowly escaped a kidnapping or hijacking attempt while driving in the province of Batangas in the Philippines.

The hero who came to their rescue? A journalist who scared off the would-be kidnappers or hijackers by shouting that he was from the media while shooting video using his camera-phone."

Curse of the Camera Phone

Michael Agger on Slate has a written a wonderful and lengthy article summing up some of the most memorable stories about citizen reporting and describes the cameraphone as "our era's chronicler of infamy" notably for capturing Prince Harry wearing a Nazi costume, Kate Moss snorting coke, Michael Richards racist ranting in a small theater, the phenomenon of happy slapping and the execution of Sadam Hussein.

Even better, he has rounded up and put side by side in one single clip, all the video footages. Agger signs off with these very truthful words:

Now thanks to cameraphones we'll see the best of things, we'll see the worst of things. We'll see everything.

Watch here.

And on a personal note, thank you Michael Agger for giving kuddos to picturephoning.

Multiply Yourself

The Multiply Yourself pix-messaging campaign, running through New Years Eve, allows you to upload your picture onto a 19,200 square foot billboard in Times Square. [via PSFK]

Photos sent in via mobile phone (text MULTIPLY to 59566), e-mail (multiply@vibes.com) or uploaded online multiplyyourself.com are then rotated through the Reuters and NASDAQ boards up until the ball hits bottom.

Phone creates interactive maps from snapshots

Cellphones that add interactive information to printed maps could soon provide a simple way to find local points of interest, according to New Scientist.

"Researchers have created a system that processes a snapshot of a printed map, captured on cameraphone, and forwards an interactive version of the same map back to the handset.

"If someone is out walking and reaches a town, they'll be able to simply point their phone at the map and find out places they could go for lunch, or other information not on the map,"says Paul Lewis, of Southampton University in the UK, who developed the system with colleague Jonathan Hare."

Cameraphone used as evidence for domestic abuse

A Florida teenager took camera phone photos of her mother sitting on her during an argument and called 911. The police came and arrested her mother for domestic battery. Alan Reiter reports on Reiter's Camera Phone Report]

"This is the first time that I've seen a picture taken on a phone for a domestic battery," said Sheriff's spokeswoman Deputy Donna L. Black.

Teenagers have used their cell phones before to document teachers berating students:

-- High school student takes camshot of teacher slapping a classmate

-- Student films teacher berating classmate

-- Cameraphone videotape shows High School teacher screaming at his students

-- Bus driver yelling at students is recorded

eBay rival brings auctioneering to camera phones

Everyone knows that putting a picture against an item you wish to dispose of helps to sell it on eBay, writes The Inquirer, "But a rival UK service, TextandSell, intends to harness the power of cameraphones to do so.

"With its new site set to launch next week (27th September), Textandsell encourages potential vendors to snap the item they want to sell. Then simply create a picture message (MMS) or text (SMS) which includes a description the item plus an indication of the desired sales price.

Finally send both text and/or photo to the company's mobile phone number – +447740827827.

The site intends to use location based technology which will enable vendors to search for items in their general vicinity – rather than searching the whole of the UK."