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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?)

14 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. Or you could by jayhawk88 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Look at where you're going. With your iEyes.

    1. Re:Or you could by derGoldstein · · Score: 4, Funny

      I couldn't find iEyes in the app store. How much is it?

      --
      Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
    2. Re:Or you could by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 4, Funny

      iEye, Cap'n!

      --
      This guy's the limit!
    3. Re:Or you could by cleojo42 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Approximately one iArm and one iLeg.

  3. already do this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    I already use iphones as pointing devices:
    when I see someone with an iphone, I know to point at them and laugh

  4. Cool stuff... by pushing-robot · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...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?
  5. The new iPhone can also be used as a paperweight by derGoldstein · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.
  6. Re:I have an iDea by derGoldstein · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.
  7. Re:The new iPhone can also be used as a paperweigh by darthnoodles · · Score: 4, Funny

    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!"

  8. 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.

  9. Way to be fashionably late... by pwfffff · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  10. This just in: iPhone can detect gravity by Aceticon · · Score: 3, Funny

    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."