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Using the iPhone As a Pointing Device For the Real World

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the because-you-can dept.

Zrop writes "With a combination of GPS, Wi-FI-positioning, compass, and accelerometers, the iPhone is turbocharged for location-based services. Combine this with the new 3.0 iPhone OS and interesting things are certainly going to happen. Steve Jobs said that the iPhone will change the world when he presented it back in 2007, and that is exactly what it will do." The bulk of the article is about using the phone as a super real world pointer, which could be really cool if it could be accurate enough to be useful, although not particularly ergonomic. (Are you pointing the screen at something? The camera? The headphone jack?)

4 of 111 comments (clear)

  1. Use them for what they are good for by Q-Hack! · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Like all tools, you need to use it for what its calibration is capible of. For instance, like the i-Phone, my Blackberry has a bubble level app. I would never consider using it as a level in bridge construction, but for haning a picture it works just fine.

    --
    Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
    1. Re:Use them for what they are good for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What you're referring to is really the age old Physics 101 discussion about accuracy and precision. I used my iPhone several times in the last couple of days to locate golf courses I was supposed to play at, and it was extremely accurate. It will remain accurate when looking for things much smaller than a golf course as well I'm sure, but the precision isn't sufficient to work on a much smaller scale.

  2. Oh Dear Lord by angryphase · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I wrote these apps for Windows Mobile, I've writtten a couple for Android, I've even written some into specialized devices using basic GPS Dongles and cellular network access for triangulation.

    Now that Apple is doing it, suddenly it's going to CHANGE THE WORLD (tm). Location-based services/applications along with advertising have been looked at before, they failed then, they will fail now. People don't want adverts on their phones, they don't want bluetooth spam or to be bombarded with "Hey, come and enjoy a Pizza half-price at Hungry Joe's" everytime they walk past a pizza restaurant.

    The article is poorly written, lacking in experience or significant research into previous implementations and sings the praises of Apple combining their award-winning expertise with this amazing new tech to change the marketplace forever.

    Pass me a bucket, mine is full already.

  3. Re:Missing Component... by Timmmm · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The actual missing component: gyros. We already know from the Wii that it doesn't accelerometers are pretty useless on their own for all but the most basic tasks.

    This video illustrates the difference they make:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s19W-MG-whE

    It would be very cool to have a device that integrated GPS, a digital compass, accelerometers and gyros. That would give you all the low and high frequency information you need to accurately locate its position and orientation in real time.