Tourist Remover photoshops stray tourists out of your snaps

Tourist Remover is a web app that will remove other tourists from the photos you took of landmarks while on vacation as a tourist. All you have to do is take multiple shots of the same location, and Tourist Remover will only keep the bits that stay the same.

How cool is that?

[Joel Johnson via boingboing]

Griffin Clarifi: Macro Lens for the iPhone

For those either stuck with ridiculous two-year AT&T contracts or just not ready to leap on the 3G S bandwagon, there are ways to make your old (aka "year old") 3G a little more S, starting with the Clarifi from Griffin.

By adding another lens to the 3G's camera, Griffin overcomes the lack of a "macro" mode and enables shooting images at close range.

[via CoolHunting]

Privacy scare after photo of Japanese royal princess posted on the Internet

A tiny photograph that may or may not show a member of the Japanese royal family was posted on Mixi (part of the scary internet). Somehow, this very dull photograph showing a girl in a school uniform smiling has created an uproar over what is supposedly a horrible violation of her privacy.

Noriyuki Kazaoka, Vice-Grand Steward of the Imperial Household Agency said: “We cannot confirm that it is (Princess Kako), but from the perspective of protecting private information, we think that generally, going ahead and posting photographs on the Internet without consent cannot be called appropriate behavior. We hope that this sort of thing does not happen again in the future.”

[via Japan Probe]

Websites 'keeping deleted photos'

User photographs can still be found on many social networking sites even after people have deleted them, Cambridge University researchers have said, reports the BBC.

They put photos on 16 popular websites - noting the web addresses where the images were stored - and deleted them.

The team said it was able to find them on seven sites - including Facebook - using the direct addresses, even after the photos appeared to have gone.

Facebook says deleted photos are removed from its servers "immediately".

"However, URLs to photographs may continue to exist on the Content Delivery Network (CDN) after users delete them from Facebook, until they are overwritten. "Overwriting usually happens after a short period of time."

Read full article.

Mobile phone footage of schoolgirl giving birth on YouTube in bid to cut teen pregnancies

According to The Daily Mail, UK NHS Trust released a graphic film clip of a young girl giving birth on a school playing field.

The idea being the shocking footage, filmed on a mobile phone, of a bloodied girl in the midst of childbirth, will shock teenagers into not getting pregnant.

But critics say it will not accomplish anything, and may make children worried about giving birth in the future.

Although it uses actors, the film was so controversial it was removed from YouTube within 24 hours after disgusted members of the public complained. It later mysteriously reappeared on the site.

Soccer World Cup Will Spur Mobile TV Adoption—In Africa

The mobile industry is always looking for the next big event, such as the Olympics, March Madness or the inauguration, to usher in the next wave of adoption. The latest buzz is that the soccer world championships will have the same effect—not in traditional cellular markets, but in Africa. MocoNews reports.

Reuters reports that more than 10 mobile TV broadcasting networks will be launched in Africa in time for the 2010 World Cup, which is taking place in South Africa, and FIFA, the major soccer governing body, said it will also be offering live coverage, specifically tailored to mobile phones for the first time. Billions are expected to tune in for traditional broadcasts.

Phone pics out tot's eye cancer

According to The Sun mother discovered her baby had a deadly cancerous tumour after taking the baby's picture with a new camera phone.

Every time she photographed the eight-month-old a strange glare from Thomas’ eye appeared on the snap.

The glare from the camera revealed light sensitive cells in his eye which could not be seen face-to-face — a sign of the killer disease.

“To look at him before you would never have seen anything was wrong. “His vision was fine and he was just like any other happy, smiling eight-month-old.

... Elizabeth and schoolteacher husband Neil now want other parents to check their children’s eyes. She added: “Many people would take the photograph and just think it was a problem with the camera, especially if it’s a phone camera. “I do think what if I had not got a new phone.

The obvious question is what cameraphone?, but so far the story doesn't say.

Picture and video messaging finally coming in iPhone 3.0 update

Addressing what is easily the biggest, most glaring omission in the device’s featureset, Apple looks set to introduce picture and video messaging to iPhone when it releases its 3.0 firmware update this summer.

[via Pocket Picks]

Ewan MacLeod launches Mobile Developer TV

Ewan MacLeod, founder of SMText News which became the Mobile Industry Review is launching a new venture called Mobile Developer TV which will publish on camera interviews of the best and the brightest in mobile development.

He aims to publish one TV show per week to start with. Each show will center on one or two people in the mobile development space. iPhone App developers, certainly. But he's also interested in the whole spectrum — from Blackberry’s App World, to Nokia’s Ovi, to Microsoft’s Windows Marketplace and beyond.

Ewan is interested in interested in talking to and profiling:

-- Mobile application developers (iPhone/Blackberry/Nokia/J2ME/Samsung/Microsoft/Android).

-- Companies whose primary business is NOT in the mobile space — but who have developed or are developing mobile applications.

-- Companies who supply services to/work with mobile developers.

If you’d like to feature, drop Ewan a note: ewan@mobiledeveloper.tv.

$62,000 to download a movie?

$62,000 to download a movie? That's what happened to a caller named Alberto, who told his tale to CNN.

Alberto made the grave mistake of downloading Wall-E for his nephew while vacationing in Mexico over his data card and was slapped with a $62,000 bill from his wireless carrier when he returned home.

Alberto tried to contest the charge and the carrier reduced the bill to $17,000, arguing that the five-figure charge was what it cost them to deliver the movie.

[via arstechnica]

Police delete London tourists' photos 'to prevent terrorism'

Austrian tourist Klaus Matzka and his teenage son Loris took several photographs of some of eLondon's sights, including the famous red double-decker buses and Vauxhall bus station, which Matzka regards as "modern sculpture". The Guardian reports.

But two policemen forced them to delete the photographs from their cameras in the name of preventing terrorism. They were told that photographing anything to do with transport was "strictly forbidden".

The policemen also recorded the pair's details, including passport numbers and hotel addresses.

... A spokeswoman for Metropolitan police said: "It is not the police's intention to prevent tourists from taking photographs and we are looking to the allegations made." The force said it had no knowledge of any ban on photographing public transport in the capital.

An odd thing to say since the UK launched a Counter-Terrorism advertising campaign last March warning about just that.

[via Régine del.icio.us]

Related:

-- UK launches Counter-Terrorism advertising campaign, including: "Observation and surveillance help terrorists plan attacks. Have you seen anyone taking pictures of security arrangements such as CCTV? Has it made you suspicious?

-- Street photographers fear for their art amid climate of suspicion - With public concern rising over paedophilia and terrorism, street photographers face new difficulties.

Find untagged photos of your Facebook friends with Face.com’s Photo Finder

This one is kinda scary because of how well it works. Face.com’s new Photo Finder application for Facebook helps you automatically discover public photos that you and your friends may have forgotten to tag — and it also lets you track untagged photos of your friends. The New York Times reports.

Face-recognition technology is itself not new, but Photo Finder’s twist is how it makes use of Facebook’s interface. The social network only shows you photos of yourself containing tags about you — your name and profiled, associated with you in a given photo. Up until now, untagging a photo is how you hide a photo from your Facebook friends — the other option is to use more advanced privacy settings that restrict photo viewing to specific friends, but I’m not sure how many people use that feature.

With Face.com, your friends can bypass such social engineering to directly stalk you, or visa versa as the case may be.

Read full article.

Flickr Photos Become Stock Photography at Getty Images

According to Mashable, Getty Images, the popular site for print and media stock photography buys, is hoping to make the search for, and purchase of, high quality Flickr images for commercial purposes thanks to the Flickr Collection - which made its debut last night.

In the exclusive partnership that was initially announced last July, Getty Images editors handpicked photographs from Flickr’s community of 3 billion images and plans to refresh the collection with thousands of new ones each one month.

Read full article.

Twittering Celebrities Take Fans Backstage in Their Lives

Celebrities are increasingly using Twitter to communicate with fans. The latest: Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore uploaded photos from an Oscars after-party using their mobile phones.

In addition to being a staple for rapid-fire communication among technophiles and a networking tool for tech-savvy companies, Twitter is swiftly being adopted by celebrities who see it as a way to give the public a controlled peephole into their otherwise highly private lives.

[via The New York Times]

Comedian Lee Hurst fined for smashing audience member's camera phone

The comedian Lee Hurst pleaded guilty today to smashing an audience member's mobile phone at one of his stand-up gigs because he believed it was being used to film his performance. [via The Guardian]

The stand-up comic abused the audience member and grabbed his handset, worth £80, before returning to the stage and smashing it on the floor during his performance at the Stoke pub in Guildford, Surrey, on 3 September last year, Guildford magistrates' court heard.

Hurst believed the audience member – who claimed to be sending a text message – was filming him, the court was told. Hurst dismissed the texting claim, arguing that the man's mobile phone had been following him across the stage. He said: "I moved to the right and the light followed me. I moved back to the centre and the light followed me again."

Photo books a hit in the down economy

Blurb, the San Francisco company that makes flashy self-published photo books, sold nearly $30 million worth of books in 2008, 800,000 books altogether. USA Today reports.

That's some rare good news from techland these days.

Eileen Gittins, the CEO of Blurb, whom we profiled in early 2007 when the company was just starting, says the economy is strangely helping her thrive.

“Believe it or not, it’s a positive,” she says. “I hear stories all the time, `Now that I’m laid off, I have time to finally put together that photo book. And it only cost me $30.”

Congress gets bill to make cell phone cameras go click

Worried about someone taking pictures of you surreptitiously? A new bill would require all cell phone cameras to make that shutter-click noise so you'll be warned when there's a peeping tom in the locker room with you.

According to arstechnica,

The Camera Phone Predator Alert Act (H.R. 414) was introduced into Congress this month by Representative Peter King, Republican of New York.

The bill's text says that Congress has found that "children and adolescents have been exploited by photographs taken in dressing rooms and public places with the use of a camera phone.

Related attempts dating back as early as 2003:

-- New Jersey Legislation Being Considered To Keep Camera Phone Users From Taking Surprise Photos

-- Should Cell Phone Cams Come with Alarms?

-- Camera phone clampdown demanded

-- Louder Camera Phones?

-- A seal to cover a camphone lens

-- Camera Phone to Require Shutter Sound From Next Year

-- Do phone cameras have to make a sound when digital cameras can be silent?

-- Manufacturers oppose camera-phone restrictions

-- Korean gov't wants to make cameraphones noisy

Geneva's most famous art critic is a work of art himself

This is not related to camera phones, just photography. A new exhibit here in Geneva at the Krisal gallery, showcases one of our most intriguing citizens, Etienne Dumont - tattooed from head to toe - who is a brilliant art critic for Geneva's daily newspaper, La Tribune de Genève.

Twelve photographers have taken his portrait on the occasion of his 60th birthday. You can view image gallery here.

Lunch over IP wrote in April 2007:

Dumont is tattooed from head to toe; has plexiglas piercings on the nose and under the lower lip; a titanium ring on the left hand; rings of 70-mm (2.7 inches) of diameter on the earlobes. And two horns on his head.

Dumont says that he got his first tattoo in 1974 and his body has been a work in progress ever since.

The above photograph is by Steve Luncker.

The iPhone's camera jumping up in the Flickr ratings

In the list of Flickr's most popular cameras (compiled from the metadata attached to any photos that upload to the popular site), our favorite cell phone is climbing up the ranks.

[via TUAW]

Playboy's new mobile reality mobisodes

Starting today, Playboy is offering downloadable "mobisodes" –- mobile-based video shorts -– that show three interns hard at work. The shorts, filmed last summer in and around Playboy’s New York office on Fifth Avenue in midtown, are free.

[via USA Today]

Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show To Air On Multiple Platforms

CBS announced that it would be expanding the Victoria Secret Fashion Show presence through the use of multiple platforms including the on-air broadcast, a dedicated website and its own Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show mobile television channel.

[via Broadcastin@Cable]

Kodak sues LG and Samsung over alleged patent violations

Kodak has announced that it is taking LG and Samsung to court over both companies' production of cell phones with integrated digital cameras. ars technica reports.

In its complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, Kodak alleges that the digital cameras in cell phones like the LG Shine or Samsung FlipShot violate two of its patents related to digital imaging.

The suit, as well a complaint filed with the International Trade Organization, seeks an injunction against the two mobile device makers to bar them from selling devices that infringe on the patents. Kodak also seeks unspecified compensatory damages and "other relief as the Court deems just and proper."

Read full article.

Photographer launches iPhone-only style magazine

PMc is the world’s first paid, iPhone-only magazine. Named after its creator—noted nightlife photographer Patrick McMullan—the bi-monthly title is pronounced ‘Pee-Mick’ and is the property of New York-based Hot Phone Hit Factory. Springwise reports.

PMc’s target audience of style-conscious readers can download the mag from the iPhone App store for USD 0.99.

Silver-screen audio trick could smooth jerky video

An effect involving flashing discs of light used since the early days of cinema to make the action appear smoother could improve our perception of poor video footage sent to cellphones.

[via New Scientist]

Vote, Uninterrupted

If you’re planning to vote in person this election, you’d better get familiar with regulations in your state around bringing camera cell phones and other recording devices into the polling area. The New York Times reports.

Some states don’t explicitly ban phones and cameras but plan to have poll workers warn voters not to use recording devices in the voting area, Bayard said.

The California Secretary of State’s office told me poll workers shouldn’t even ask if a voter is carrying a cell phone, but the Texas Secretary of State’s office said voters have to turn off camera phones completely once they’re within 100 feet of a polling place.

Kodak signs into patent cross-license agreement with Nokia

According to engadget:mobile and phonescoop, Eastman Kodak Company has entered into a mysterious patent license agreement with Nokia.

The details are still vague, but "the deal will enable each outfit "access to the other's intellectual property portfolio," and it'll also provide "significant benefits to both companies."

Kodak press release.

MySpace Finally Supports Mobile Photo Uploads

Short of using a specialized application (or phone) of some sort, users of the social networking service MySpace did not have a way to easily upload photos from their mobile phones directly to their profiles until now. According to a recent entry on the MySpace blog, mobile photo uploads are finally supported. They noted this feature was "a long time coming."

[via The New York Times]

Sony Ericsson patent app takes the tedium out of zooming your camera

Spotted on engadget:mobile, a new patent application filed by Sony Ericsson that controls your cameraphone's zoom level simply by moving it back and forth.

According to Unwiredview: "The basic idea is to make zooming automatic by following the handset movement. When you move a camera away from your body, the image zooms in, as you move it back, the image zooms out."

9 Megapixel Module for Cameraphones Launched

Germany based Digital Imaging Systems (DIS) has announced the launch of a 9 Megapixel camera module for mobile phones.

Its new camera modules provide rich features such as auto-focus, high quality lenses, mechanical shutter and ND-filter with integrated actuators and an easy to access platform software, enabling high-end digital still camera (DSC) quality in mobile phones.

[via Cellular News. More in Press release]

Nokia patents new photo scribbling software

Nokia has filed a paent for a new system for adding notes to photos using a built-in keypad or touchscreen.

The system would mean that once you take a photo, you’d be able to flip it over and use a stylus (or a qwerty) to scribble some details on the back, just like a real photograph.

[New Scientist via Pocket-Picks]

Image Fulgurator

Image Fulgurator is a camera-looking device that is used to smuggle visual information into other people's photographs.

The Fulgurator can be used anywhere where there's a another camera nearby that is being used with a flash. It operates via a reactive flash projection that enables an image to be projected on a surface the exact same moment when someone else is photographing it.

The intervention takes a few milliseconds and will most likely leave the targeted photographer puzzled as the motif he/she just photographed will suddenly contain an extra visual layer, somewhat like a watermark.

Image Fulgurator is a project by the artist Julius von Bismarck, who just recieved a Golden Nica Award at Ars Electronica for his work.

[via Guerilla Innovation]

China mobile TV hangs its hopes on Olympics

Many Chinese unable to catch the Olympics on television will watch national hurdling hero Liu Xiang retain his 110 meter crown next week B>by simply switching on their cellphone, reports Reuters.

"That, at least, is the dream outcome for the backers of mobile TV, for whom the Games are a golden opportunity to burnish the reputation of a medium that has failed to live up to its potential since it was launched in 2004."

‘Spider-Man’ creator goes high-tech

Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man, has struck a landmark deal with Walt Disney that will see his latest comic creation published online and on digital devices in a move that signals the medium’s shift to digital distribution. The FT reports.

"Power Entertainment, Mr Lee’s production company, has developed Time Jumper, which Disney will distribute on the internet and on mobile phones, as well as in the traditional comic book format.

... The digital comic will combine traditional print elements, such as thought and speech bubbles, with music, voices and special effects."

12seconds.tv: The real video Twitter

12seconds.tv is a Twitter-like video status service. It gives you 12 seconds to share video moments from your life. TechCrunch reports.

In their own words: 12seconds.tv allows friends and family to record and share short video updates about what they are doing or where they are. You can use a webcam or a cellphone. It's a FREE, easy, and fun way to stay in touch.

TechCrunch has 500 invites for the alpha launch.

AT&T lands exclusive Olympics channel for Mobile TV

AT&T has used its clout as an Olympics sponsor and official telecommunications provider to the U.S team to nail an exclusive 24/7 channel on its broadcast mobile TV service.

NBC’s coverage of the Olympics won’t be limited to AT&T entirely, but for mobile the carrier did secure sole rights for live competition footage and commentary on the MediaFLO platform, which both carriers use for broadcast-like TV service.

[engadget:mobile via Moco News]

China Halts Illegal Olympic Videos On More Than 20 Websites

File under somewhat extreme with more to come. The National Copyright Administration of China says it sent orders to more than 20 video websites to stop their illegal broadcasting of the unauthorized Olympic torch relay videos. China Tech News reports.

"In a press conference, Xu Chao, vice director of the Copyright Division of NCAC, said that China will impose strict punishments on Internet and mobile platforms that broadcast events and activities related to the Olympic Games without authorization.

If any website is found roadcasting Olympic events and activities without authorization, the website will receive a maximum fine of CNY100,000 ($14,500) in administrative penalties. If the circumstance is serious, it will be investigated for criminal liability.

... In addition, the departments in charge will establish a joint law-enforcement office during the Olympic Games to implement a 24-hour supervision over the broadcast activities of the media."

Phone photo proves prisoner’s downfall

File under pretty stupid. An Australian prisoner who denied he owned a mobile phone and SIM card found in his cell had used it to take a photo of himself.

[via Fairfax Digital]

Localizing where a picture was taken

According to Roland Piquepaille, Carnegie Mellon University "researchers are trying to estimate the geographic location of a single photo by comparing it to a database of 6 million pictures accurately geolocated by flickr users. Their method allowed them to correctly guess the location of an unknown photo 30 times better than with pure luck."

Mobile music video service Napster Clips debuts in Japan

Napster has just launched its first mobile music video service, Napster Clips in Japan.

This new service puts a premium on unlimited access to a high-quality digital video service that would complement Napster’s music subscription service. In partnership with Japan’s NTT Docomo, Napster is offering this service via the mobile operator’s new N960IL onefone mobile handset.

[via Gadgetell]

OmniVision Develops Sensor To Improve Camera Phones

In a development that may provide a significant improvement in camera-phone picture quality, semiconductor maker OmniVision Technologies Inc. said it has developed a "radically different" image sensor that can squeeze many more pixels on a tiny chip.

The new technology will allow cellphone makers to offer resolution comparable to that found in the latest digital cameras. But will probably be several years before the new chips appear in lower-end handsets.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

Google fuzzes out faces in privacy push

Google has rolled out a new technology which automatically blurs any human face appearing in street-level photographs taken for use in its mapping services by its fleet of camera-mounted vehicles. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

"The blurring technology, which will be retrospectively applied to all existing Street View images and incorporated in all future releases of the popular mapping feature, is intended to mollify concerns about the potentially intrusive nature of the service.

Google will shortly previewed the face-blurring technology on the Street View images found on its Manhattan maps. Detail of the changes were announced on an official Google blog today.

Are cellphones ruining the concert experience?

What if you gave a concert and the crowd refused to watch? Asks The Dallas Morning News.

"It's not as far-fetched as it seems. As more and more concertgoers fiddle with cellphone cameras and fidget with BlackBerries, some people say mobile technology is ruining the concert experience.

"It's extraordinarily irritating," says Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame. "All these people holding up these horrid little squares of bright light."

"It's like they're not even there," says jazz guitarist Bill Frisell. "It's like, 'Why don't you put that away and listen to the music?'

Its not just a case of cranky baby boomers griping about the young and the restless. Plenty of younger artists and fans are also getting fed up with the tech intrusion.

"As a performer, it's frustrating to look out and see a sea of cellphones instead of faces," says Sleater-Kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein.

"There's definitely a problem where people are so busy documenting the moment that they forget to just live in the moment."

Better Reading on the Small Screen

A research project could help people transfer paper documents to their phones and read them more easily. MIT Technology Review reports.

"In a recent demonstration, researchers showed how the technology, called Seamless Documents, could store a scanned document in a database and analyze its structure and content.

The analysis identifies sections and paragraphs, and automatically extracts key phrases that summarize the sections. So when a person pulls up the document on a phone, she can jump to a section labeled with a keyword, or just skip to the last paragraph on a page.

In addition, as the user scrolls through the document, software on the phone automatically resizes images, section headers, and plain text, as different elements of the document layout come into view."

Democrat wants to require disability-friendly Internet phones, video

At the moment, most TVs and telephones must be outfitted with special features for people with hearing, vision, and speech impairments under U.S. law.

Now an influential Democratic congressman wants to expand those requirements to their Internet counterparts. NewsBlog reports.

"The bill (PDF) being drafted by Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) would require, at least in some cases, dramatic changes in the way Internet phone- and video-related products are designed, while making it more difficult than under existing law for companies to claim exemptions from those requirements."

Big Moving Pictures

Big Moving Pictures (BMP) is a rolling television network – the company provides everything that a conventional television network does (content, distribution, sales) but without a signal that goes to your home... instead, the ‘signal’ comes to you directly at major outdoor events, via large video screens and sound systems. And soon, even to your video-equipped mobile phone and the Web.

The BMP production integrates tightly with the event you’re attending, including packaged content about the performers or competitors, information about the day’s program, and live camera shots from planes, car, motorcycles, boats and even skydivers! All with terrific music, narration and the feeling that you’re experiencing something truly powerful and exciting.

[via Gizmag]