More than Just Toys - Asia Computer Weekly

When I think of camera phones, I almost exclusively see them as being great consumer products. In fact, they have emerged to become one of the hottest segments in the cell phone business. But to think of them just as consumer devices misses their overall potential. Their use outside of mainstream consumer markets was brought home to me recently when I made a visit to a very large industrial construction project to see how some field force applications designed for the construction industry was being used. Of course, they had the normal CAD/CAM software in place for managing part of the project on site, but to my surprise, many of the construction managers had cell phones with cameras in them and were using them to identify items being used in the project that they were not sure of. In one key instance, there was a huge bolt that the foreman was trying to identify and he took a picture of it on his camera phone, sent it to his supervisor, who in this case was in another state, and got clarification within minutes about its function and final place in a particular complicated electronic panel design. When I asked the foreman about this unique use of a camera phone, he said that they do it all the time. Whenever they are unsure about some mechanical problem, they whip out their camera phone and send a picture to headquarters to help them determine the identity of a part or get final directions for its use. Another example of its usage comes from a company called Mobot, which gets you to take a picture of its advertisements and when you send it to their database, it does an actual image search for that ad in its database to see if there are special promotions linked to it, and sends that promotions back to the sender for an on-the-spot deal. Although camera phones will continue to be primarily used by consumers, it is clear that they have serious business potential as well.
Source:Tim Bajaran www.asiacomputerweekly.com