Researchers at at Cambridge University have developed SpotCode,which plans “to use commercially available hardware to turn the camera-equipped mobile phone into a mouse,remote control,keyboard and more,”the International Herald Tribune reports.”Instead of having all the hassle of putting things out in the environment that you have to maintain and that people can vandalize,you get a cheap PC, shove it in the back room of your shop and just put posters out front,”said Richard Sharp,an Intel researcher in Cambridge.On those posters are symbols the researchers call SpotCodes:concentric rings of black and white blocks representing ones and zeros.Focusing a camera phone on the code and then clicking any button starts up a wireless service - for example, buying a train ticket, checking a flight’s departure time or downloading a ring tone from a store display.”Further the aticle says that “Mobile phones have long been able to do more than make calls and take pictures;you can use them to pay parking meters, make purchases from vending machines,project images against a wall, display your bicycling speed or even navigate an unfamiliar city.But the desire to connect the paper and online worlds has only recently become practical,partly because of the rapid rise of camera-equipped cellphones.”
Camera phone snapshots connect the dots