Mobile phone cameras combined with pattern recognition software has killer app potential.
Semacode is phone software that uses pattern recognition to extract hyperlinks from 2D barcodes.
Spotcode uses a similar idea for circular codes that enables the user to shift, pan and rotate, essentially using a mobile as a pointing device. The phone interfaces with the display using bluetooth.
The people behind spotcode also see the phone as becoming a storage and authentication system, which is entirely rational - mobiles are the closest thing we have right now to a personal trusted computing base.
The first missing piece of the puzzle is a similar scheme for movement in 3D. Moving the phone back and forth, and tracking the phone rotation over all three axes.
Secondly, as far as I can tell, there's no J2ME API for camera access.
Lastly, both semacode and spotcode are proprietary :-) but that's just me wishing I had something to hack on.
I'd like to see phonecam-based interfaces become ubiquitous for things like public smart displays, info-points, (such as floor plans), etc. This type of interface has the potential to surpass touch-screen technology, which is normally the chosen solution in this kind of situation.
A camera phone that also functions as a normal bluetooth-enabled mouse would be interesting.
Use cases:
- As with the spotcode website, bluetooth-enabled LCD displays for airport floorplans. Key points: "You are here" info, "Select destination gate" (a perfect example of throwing an interface) combined with route planning, flight information tracking.
- Corporate floorplans, employee directories (access protected)
- Supermarket product search (and suggestions)
- Others I'll think up later.
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