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Using the iPhone As a Pointing Device For the Real World
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?)
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.
Look at where you're going. With your iEyes.
I already use iphones as pointing devices:
when I see someone with an iphone, I know to point at them and laugh
...but this isn't exactly new, even on phones.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Eh, all phones are like that. I was recently in the city in a large building. I guess they had repeaters or amplifiers because I had full (or nearly full) bars on my phone. Yet my calls from my Samsung mobile to the landlines back home were horrid; I was losing a lot of the conversation even while stationary. It was quite curious.
On one hand, I just want a good solid phone that maintains good reception. I don't have MUCH use for all of the bells/whistles like playing MP3s. The camera is fine for the rare occasion when I need to take some snapshots, like if I was just in an accident and want to take pictures of the damage/scene for insurance purposes, but it's pixel-count isn't a selling point for me.
On the other hand I'd like a solid smart phone with a nice screen / interface that syncs well with my laptop for calendar entries, address books, notes, etc. A large library of apps to choose from is also tempting so long as they're useful to me. And if it had WiFi for when I needed to browse (and didn't want to pay for the data) then all-the-better.
How many of these articles are going to keep making it on /.?
Last time the iPhone was used to make the cover art of some magazine, which was of course comparable to the moon landing.
I know that this sounds like trolling, and by some definitions it may be, but I think that even an objective reader (someone who *isn't* sick of hearing how the iPhone cured cancer) would find this particular "article" incredibly pandering.
If I were *looking* for hype and gimmicks, there's always digg.
Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
Serving as a phone is 17th on the list of iPhone features. Right after "Peggle".
Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
Like all tools, you need to use it for what its calibration is capible [sic] of
You could get quite accurate for big landmarks, which would be useful for navigation in cities like New York, Chicago, and Houston. Implement an app like the camera app with realtime video and add crosshairs. The pointing app would use the camera, GPS, the accelerometers, and the compass. You'd know about where you are, and which direction the camera is pointed. You could then send a *highly* compressed photo to an app at Google, which would calculate the outlines of the big landmarks in the area for the orientation of the iPhone for various positions within the GPS circle of error. The app could then pop up formatted data about the landmark.
You could also use Google Streetview data to recognize when the app is pointing at famous storefronts. Heck, why not just build all of this into the Camera app?
An app with those capabilities would be the envy of Real Estate agents. Heck, they might envy it enough to hate it -- it's just a little *too* easy!
Or just learn how to read a map and call off your coordinates over the radio. It's not hard* and saves taxpayers money.
*Disclaimer: I used to teach mapping in the Marine Corps. YMMV. If you have trouble counting or following bold straight lines on a map, this may be extremely difficult.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
In related news, for the first time ever an iPhone was used in a colonoscopy to detect cancer. Using the sleek design to its advantage the device was able to "get in there" and take the photos required. The doctors said it was a success...the patient said "Ow!"
no other device can you paint with as well as the iPhone/iPod Touch
You should've conditioned that statement with something like "at that price point" or "of that size". As it is, I can simply say: a Tablet PC has better resolution, accuracy, software, and likely will not destroy your eyes when you use it to paint on the fly.
Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
Yeah, depends on the target. If you're bombing a hilltop, lasing provides far more accuracy than needed. Military Grid Reference System (MGRS) is usually used in 6, 8, or 10 digit numbers. a 6 digit grid gives a 100 meter square on the ground, which is good enough for ground navigation and targeting of things like hilltops. An 8 digit grid gives a 10 meter square, which is good enough for most buildings. 10 digit grids give a 1 meter square, which are used for targeting extensively. You could denote not just a building, but which window or smokestack. Sounds cool, but it's usually more accuracy than you need. You can easily read a 6 digit grid off a tactical 1:50,000 map, or even an 8 digit grid with some practice. Like I said, for most targets, that's good enough. It's not sexy, but it works. Everybody's got GPS in the field these days though, so I guess it's kind of moot.
You also have to look at the accuracy of the weapons systems involved. All those precision strikes you see on the news mask all the misses, some if which are way off. It doesn't do much good to lase a target if you can't reliably hit it.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
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.
Great idea, an iPhone mounted on a shark with a friggin' laser beam attached! Bwahahahahaha!
Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
You've got to be kidding me.
They have a video of Wikitude on the G1 already doing all of this crap in an article HYPING THE IPHONE.
Steve Jobs must have sold his soul to the devil to get his freakishly skilled marketing department.
One of the best apps I've seen that uses the combination of GPS, 3D Accelerometer and Incline-corrected Compass is the "Google Sky Map" available for download. Once started, your phone becomes a window into a 360-degree x 180-degree planetarium dome (a full sphere). Hold the phone straight ahead, and see the virtual horizon line. As you rotate, see the N E S W markers slide into view appropriately in real time. Hold the phone overhead to see the "Zenith" marker, or look through the floor for the "Nadir" marker. Everywhere else on the virtual dome, you see the major stars and constellation lines, planets and other astronomical items. Want to find Jupiter? Select that goal from a menu, and the phone will guide your hand until you're looking in the direction of the current position for Jupiter, even if it's below your feet or behind the sun.
Oh yeah, and it's on the Android phone. For free.
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This just in:
"Stunned users have discovered yet another feature of the iPhone - it can be used as a gravity detection device.
iPhone owner and fan John Smith from Los Angeles CA told us of his surprise at discovering this surprising feature on his iPhone: 'It was incredible, I just opened my hand and instantly my iPhone started accelerating in the same direction as the local gravitational field - I never noticed that my iPhone could do this before' - he told us while sipping a triple-shot Cafe Mocha.
From testimonies by other users, it seems that this feature in the iPhone shows itself whenever it is released at a distance from any surface.
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."
... at whom you point that iPhone. You could start an intergalactic war.
Not because the aliens mistake it for a weapon, but because they prefer the Palm Pre. And you know how these platform wars get out of hand.
Have gnu, will travel.
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.