Reiter's Camera Phone Report

Would you want an optical character reader on your camera phone?

Would you want an optical character reader (OCR) on your camera phone in order to be able to scan business cards and documents?  The question isn't just academic because LG Electronics has introduced business card-scanning camera phone, but not for the United States.

Forbes magazine reports the LG-KP3800 1.3 megapixel CCD-based camera phone includes an OCR to scan business card names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc.

The phone also includes GPS, fingerprint recognition and an MP3 player.  The Gadget X Weblog notes that the handset includes a 3D dual speaker and enough memory to download 15 songs and store 80 minutes of videos.

Useful feature

I think an OCR in a cellular phone could be quite useful, assuming it worked well.  Scanning business cards into a cellular phone would be great, but even better would be the ability to quickly scan a sentence or a few paragraphs from a document.

Several companies, such as NeoMedia Technologies, Scanbuy and Nextcode, have software for scanning information from barcodes -- either traditional barcodes or proprietary images -- and are trying to stimlulate the market in the United States.

In Japan and, I think, South Korea, you can already purchase camera phones that can read barcodes on business cards that transfer the information into a handset.  In the U.S., cellular operators are still trying to figure out the business case for barcode scanning camera phones.

Opportunities abound

I believe scanning capabilities on camera phones offer significant business opportunities and value for subscribers.  I hope the U.S. market doesn't lie fallow, the way it has for other promising services, such as location-based offerings.

U.K. teenager sentenced to juvenile institution for camera phone photos in court

A U.K. teenager was sentenced to six months at a juvenile institution for taking two camera phone photos and a few videos during a robbery trial, according to an article in Silicon.com.

The article says, "Nineteen-year-old Shaun Nash was convicted on Friday after he was spotted, by a juror, in the public gallery of Bristol Crown Court recording video and taking photos on his mobile. He was arrested and charged with contempt of court."

Apparently, the judge wanted to make an example of Nash.  The article reports, "Judge Michael Roach described his actions as 'extremely serious' and said the conviction was necessary to show other that mobile phones can not be used in court."

Indian porn film generates lots of hits, comments

I'm getting more hits and comments about the item I posted about two Indian students who made a sex film with a camera phone than just about anything I've posted here.

For the record, I don't have the URL of the film that is, reportedly, circulating around the Internet and I wouldn't post the URL even if I did have it.

Camera phones banned at Honda plant in U.K.

Honda has banned camera phones from its plant in Swindon in the U.K. and told its 4,000 employees not to bring camera phones into the building, according to an article from the BBC.

The banning follows the publication of an unauthorized photo of a Honda Civic in a magazine. 

(Written on and transmitted from my RIM BlackBerry)

Indian student porn MMS video results in expulsions, cellular phone ban

Two Indian students used a camera phone to film a short porn video, resulting in their expulsion and the banning of cellular phones, according to several media reports, including one in Sify News.

Two students in New Delhi -- a girl honor student and a boy from a wealthy family -- were expelled after they circulated their 2.37-minute film to other students.

As a result of the incident, cellular phones -- that had been allowed -- were banned in the school.  Any student caught with a phone will be fined 2,000 rupees ($44.40) and the phone will be confiscated.  (Another article says the fine will be 1,000 rupees.)

U.K. Boots works with Pixology for camera phone-to-store photo printing

U.K. pharmacy/retailer Boots is working with Pixology to enable camera phone users to transmit photos from the handset to Boots for printing photos, Digital Media Europe reports.

With the service, Pix2Print, the user will receive an SMS when the photos are ready. 

Boots is testing Pixology's service at ten stores.

Here's a larger article from PhoneContent.

LG Electronics ponders six or seven megapixel camera phone for 2005

LG Electronics says it is pondering coming out with a six megapixel or seven megapixel camera phone in 2005. 

Reports indicate Canon could provide some six megapixel components and Sony could provide seven megapixel components. 

This year Samsung introduced the world's first five megapixel camera phone.  The world famous lens maker, Carl Zeiss, said it didn't see any reason why ten megapixel camera phones could be produced.   

More than megapixels

As I've written many times, the number of megapixels is just one component required for high quality images. 

However, camera phone vendors understand this and some are indeed upgrading the other components -- lenses, optical zoom, mechanical shutter, flash, internal software, etc. -- to create a cellular phone that takes high quality images. 

(Written on and transmitted from my RIM BlackBerry)

Camera phones to comprise 99 percent of South Korea cellular market in 2005

Camera phones will comprise 99 percent of cellular handset sales in South Korea in 2005, according to an article in The Korea Times.  The article says, "The nation's handset manufacturers said Monday local sales of camera phones rocketed from 1.3 million in 2002 to 7.1 million last year.

"The figure is projected to reach 13 million this year and 15 million for 2005.  As a result, the camera-embedded phones will capture 51 percent of the market in 2003, up from 8 percent in 2002.

"The ratio is forecast to further jump to 81 percent this year and 99 percent for 2005."

Japanese, Korean manufacturers rule

If you want to see where the camera phone market is going, you need to look at the product and services being launched in Japan and South Korea.  The Japanese and South Korean manufacturers compete aggressively against each other for market share, and they all compete against Nokia.

The Korea Times reports, "Strategic Analytics [sic -- I believe the firm is called Strategy Analystics] said Japanese giant NEC carved out 15.5 percent of the 77.9-million camera phone market last year followed by Nokia's 13 percent and Samsung Electronics came in at third with about 10 million sales for 11.8 percent.

"However, Samsung is likely to more than treble its camera phone shipments to 35 million units this year to climb at least a notch in the global standings, according to Daishin Securities analyst Lee Young-yong."

Ooopps...neversquare

Ignore the previous post!

The U.K. camera phone photo sharing site is http://www.neversquare.com

(Written on and transmitted from my RIM BlackBerry)

Picture sharing site in U.K.

ZeeZee has alerted me to a picture sharing site in the U.K., http://www.nevershare.com, http://www.neversquare.com, for posting camera phone photos that can be transmitted among cellular network.

(Written on and transmitted from my RIM BlackBerry)