| New Ways to Maximize Camera Phone Technology |
by Dr. Richard Sharp (Jul. 1, 2004)
Overview: New Uses for Camera Phones
In cities around the world, purchasing a soda out of a vending machine can be as easy as dialing your cell phone. Even parking and toll fees are easily paid through a cell phone. Cell phones are already much more than a communication device. They are used as debit/credit cards to purchase food, services, and gas.
Now, the global proliferation of cell phones with cameras brings more opportunities to use mobile phone devices in different capacities. Intel researchers are exploring new applications for camera phone technology, and the best part is that these applications require no additional hardware.
In Intel's research labs, camera phones are being used as pointing devices, authentication devices, and storage devices. Intel researchers have also shown how camera phones can provide user interfaces for systems that, because of cost and/or form factor, aren't able to accommodate a display of their own.
Exploring New Methodologies
Have you ever been frustrated when you tried to use the interactive display at a museum or information kiosk? More than likely the device that allows you to interact with the display is broken; keyboards, mice and buttons suffer at the hands of thousands of users.
But what if the device that you use to interact with that display belongs to you and is already in your pocket or purse -- your camera phone? Then, instead of dealing with a broken button or keyboard, you take out your mobile phone and control the display with that. Essentially your camera phone becomes your own personal mouse and keyboard.
There are many scenarios where the combination of visual tags and camera phones (Figure 1) can be employed. Maybe you're walking down a city street and see a poster for a movie or a play. On the poster is a visual tag. By using a camera phone, you could click on the visual tag to get more information on the film -- perhaps a listing of the show times and locations where it is playing. Additionally, there may be an option to buy your tickets right then and there.
Figure 1. Tag-reader running on a camera phone.
In a business environment, this technology is also valuable. For example, an IT administrator could approach a rack of systems and quickly determine the configuration of each by aiming their camera phone at the visual tags placed on the various server boxes (Figure 2). The configuration details would immediately be displayed on his camera-phone screen, and using the phone's keypad he could scroll through and select the information that he needs.
Figure 2. Camera phones can enable IT administrators to quickly learn server configuration details.
Maximizing Existing Technology
Current Intel studies on new methodologies for camera phones depend on two existing core technologies: visual tags and Bluetooth* wireless technology. Bluetooth technology has already shipped worldwide on millions of camera phones, and market research estimates that rapid adoption is likely to continue in the foreseeable future (IDC Research, Moving Pictures 2003: Worldwide camera phone survey, forecast, and analysis, 2003-2007).
Unlike touch screens, which require users to stand close to a display, a camera phone can be used to remote control a display from a distance. This allows interactive displays to be situated in places where users cannot reach them, making optimal use of space (for example, plasma screens located above supermarket aisles).
Using Visual Tags
Visual tags encode information in two parts: a service identifier and a data block. The service identifier encodes the name of the Bluetooth service to which a tag relates. The data block contains a few bits of application-specific information that are used to identify a particular tag. By using a combination of visual tags and Bluetooth, the user is shielded from tedious and unintuitive device naming and pairing issues. In an environment where multiple services are exposed over Bluetooth, this kind of naming abstraction is of great benefit.
The visual tags can be used as both active and passive controls. Active visual tags can be generated dynamically from a PC display (Figure 3). Passive tags can be printed on posters or in magazines, for example. Visual tags have already been tested in marketing posters used for events in Europe.
Figure 3. Active visual tags generated dynamically from a PC display.
The visual tags used in the Intel Research project are SpotCodes developed by High Energy Magic, Ltd. SpotCodes are two-dimensional circular barcodes with two data rings and 21 sectors. High Energy Magic has already released high-performance SpotCode-reading software for use on camera phones. The reader captures frames from the phone's embedded camera, performing real-time image processing to locate and decode SpotCodes at 15 frames-per-second. When a SpotCode is detected, it is highlighted with a red crosshair on the phone's display. A beta version of the SpotCode reader is available for download at the High Energy Magic Web site.
Added Benefits
To both the consumer and provider, there are many benefits to these new interaction methodologies and, because they all rely entirely on commodity hardware, there is no associated cost in implementing them.
Rather than install expensive displays with input devices that could easily be broken or vandalized, consumers would instead use their own device. Similarly, rather than standing in line to access a ticket machine, people could avoid lines by using their own personal devices to purchase tickets. Indeed, if everyone used personal devices in this way, there would be no need to install and maintain expensive ticket machines at all: by pushing user-interfaces onto devices people already own, service-providers have an opportunity to reduce costs.
Another advantage of controlling computing devices with camera phones is that a device knows which camera phone is controlling it. This allows devices to be personalized automatically to suit their users. Consider, for example, a hi-fi system that can restore your personal settings, such as volume, equalization, or programmed radio stations, at the click of a visual tag.
Summary
The research work being done at Intel Cambridge demonstrates some of the untapped potential of an existing infrastructure. By exploring camera phone devices enabled with Bluetooth that are already widely in use globally, any development will impact users worldwide.
The applications that are possible with camera phones are endless, and making the software and tags available to others in the research community and high tech industry will open the door to even more opportunities to maximize the potential of an already popular device. As technology advances with higher resolution cameras and expanded storage capabilities, and the cost continues to lower for high tech parts, camera phones will be set to take on an expanded role.
More Info - Discover more about the Intel Research Network of university labs, including the Cambridge lab.
- View videos of people using the applications developed at Intel Research.
- Learn more about the SpotCodes that Intel researchers are using in their studies at the High Energy Magic Ltd. Web site.
 Author Bio -- Dr. Richard Sharp is a senior researcher with Intel Research in Cambridge, Great Britain. Prior to working with Intel research, Sharp was a research engineer at AT&T laboratories working on hardware description languages and compilers. He has been published in many journals and is also active in world-class technology conferences. Sharp received his B.A. and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Cambridge.
Copyright © Intel Corporation 2003-2004. All rights reserved. Reproduced by DeviceForge.com with permission. This article was originally published in Intel's Technology@Intel Magazine.
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