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Dilbert Author Invents ZoneTag

From a recent post by Scott Adams on his Dilbert Blog:

First, my digital camera should have GPS so it always knows where I am. When I download my photos, a Google map would pop up, and the photos would go into storage according to the points on the map where the pictures were taken, ordered by date. The map forms the backdrop for organizing the scrapbook.

Second, I would use a special credit card for all purchases on my vacation, from gas stations to hotels to restaurants. The special part is that the records of my purchases would feed into my automatic scrapbook software and coordinate it with the camera’s GPS data. That would be enough data for the scrapbook system to intelligently guess the name of the restaurant or attraction where I was at the time of the picture.

Third, the system needs face recognition software so it can label photos with at least the names of family and friends who appear in them. It doesn’t need to be 100% accurate, but it could give you a big head start.

Minus the face recognition (which ZoneTag compensates for by suggesting tags based on your history and the tag’s likelihood, which often gets the names of the people in your images), we’re already there. And there’s no need to get into your credit report, Scott! ZoneTag knows where you are and will show you names of restaurants, landmarks and attractions around you as you take a photo. Just click, and it’s captures.

Get a Nokia N95, Scott, and start ZoneTagging. If you need help setting up, feel free to drop us a line. We’ll see what we can do (an originally-signed strip of Dilbert will get you up and running — and you know what — we’ll send you the phone pre-installed as well…).

via Andy.

Oh Bay Area people, Learn about the Fire Eagle this Monday

Are you in the Bay Area? Are you dying to learn about Fire Eagle and get early Super Alpha VIP access? Then come to Mobile Monday this week, July 2nd. Even if you are not dying to learn about Fire Eagle, it would be a great chance to learn and discuss location based services.

* What: July 2007 Mobile Monday (Location Based Services)
* When: July 2nd, 2007 7:00pm
* Where: TellMe Networks Inc., 1310 Villa Street, Mountain View, CA 94041
* Who: Anyone interested in mobility
* Cost: Nothing!

Official announcement; Upcoming event. See you there!

Announcing Zurfer: Flickr Anywhere

What does it mean to have access to all the world’s images on the go, no matter where you are? If your mobile photo browser can know where you are, what would it show you? How would you keep in touch with your friends and discover interesting photos using your shiny mobile phone? How does all of this happen on a small screen with limited input mechanisms and a less-than-fast network?

Announcing Zurfer, the world’s first location-aware mobile photo browser. Zurfer tries to answer the hard questions above, but more importantly, we hope that Zurfer is easy to use and useful, intuitive and fun… in a word, playful. We also hope that you’ll waste lots of time zurfing photos on your phone. Don’t use it while crossing the street!

[Zurfer is yet another prototype that builds on the location capabilities of ZoneTag. If you do not have ZoneTag, that’s ok, Zurfer still works, but is a little less deliciously awesome than if you had ZoneTag… so get ZoneTag first if you can.]

Anyway, let’s go Zurfing!

(More about why we think the Flickr is the perfect location-based social app: later).

CrowdScapes on the Go from ITP

Mr. Bukhin likes to make us think about places and images. From his adventures into memory and implicit capture at Waymarkr (with Mr. DelGaudio), Mike has been raising more question than answers in his ITP projects. That’s a good thing.

Recently, Mike created CrowdScapes, his final ITP thesis project. CrowdScapes proudly utilizes our own TagMaps data API (as well as the Flickr APIs, of course). Mike describes the project this way:

My mobile application, CrowdScapes, lets a user explore a neighborhood through the crowd’s eyes. CrowdScapes value is that it leverages the critical mass of a large community of photo takers and sharers, not just a small subset of power users using a custom application. CrowdScapes can give places a user passes through everyday but doesn’t really consider a new life and a new possibility. By letting users step outside of themselves and consider what a location means to others, CrowdScapes can give new insight into a place.

The view CrowdScapes provides moves around two core pivots. The ‘familiar view’ shows localized photographs by a participant’s most used tags, it shows the current location through the lens of the participant’s interests. The ‘strange view’ shows the most popular tags and their respective photographs as viewed by the global Flickr crowd.

The TagMaps data is what helps Mike generate the `strange view’.

You can try CrowdScapes on your phone (via WAP) at http://m.crowdscapes.com. In a couple of days, you will see something new from us that will touch on very similar concepts. Start getting excited.

Oh, and congratulation, Mike, for passing your thesis defense!

Nokia N95 - The one phone to save us all?

Last friday the mailman brought us a great present - a production Nokia N95. Nokia refers to it as a ‘multimedia computer’ and it is by far the most eagerly anticipated Nokia phone in recent memory. The specs promise a GPS enabled, ultra-connected, super imaging, number crunching mobile device - could this finally be the ultimate phone that the geohacking community has been waiting for? After unboxing the phone I spent the last few days playing with it (It’s a hard job but someones got to do it ). Here is a my quick review:

Reasons to buy one
1) GPS with FREE maps: I can’t empasize enough the significance of the free GPS mapping software on the phone. Unlike other phones which levy a monthly charge, Nokia has commoditized GPS by giving you the basic location services for free and only charging for the premium voice directions. You can now navigate the world for free and it’s only a matter of time before more and more software and services start making use of the available GPS information.
2) 5 megapixel camera: The camera quality is excellent and takes very clear images both indoors and out. The auto-focus is pretty good and you have plenty of controls to fine tune the white balance, ISO, etc… There is some noise if you view the pictures at their full resolution but there is more than enough quality to print on the screen. Video is recorded at 640 x 480 resolution and can easily replace many cheap camcorders. The camera startup time is also much better than it was on the N73.
3) Music player: The dedicated music buttons, LOUD stereo speakers and built in headphone jack make the N95 an excellent music player. It can play several different audio formats and you can load music onto it using the Windows Media Player. The super quick startup on the player is another plus.
4) ZoneTag: The ZoneTag client takes advantage of the built in GPS to provide you with even more accurate tag suggestions and gives you 2 click upload of you cameraphone pictures (The 3rd edition client I used is still under development and we should be releasing shortly).
5) Connectivity: The WiFi is especially easy to use and active standby screen has been updated to show WiFi status. The HSDPA and Bluetooth make it one of the most connected devices out there.
6) Design: The phone feels great in my hand and is surprisingly light. The keypad has large keys and is very good for text messaging. The dual slider is a great idea and its a great way to switch modes. Full marks to the Nokia Industrial Design team.
7) Screen: The screen is bright, wide and high resolution - the landscape mode is excellent for both video and web browsing.

Reasons to pass
1) Terrible Battery Life: This one seems to be an issue that everyone is running into, the battery life on the device just plain sucks. I was getting just 6 hours of battery life when the GPS was on. People are trying to justify it by saying that bleeding edge features are power hungry - I don’t care, the battery just isn’t good enough.
2) 2 GB memory limit: The 2GB limit on the MicroSD is ridiculous. A device with such excellent music capabilities should be able to hold more than 2 GB of music at a time. Even the camcorder functionality is compromised because 2 GB will barely hold 90 minutes of video.
3) Price: $750.

In the end I must say that Nokia has hit it out of the park on everything except the battery life. I can’t understand how they could have failed so miserably on the one thing that is most important in any mobile device - mobility. If I have to use the phone tethered to a power cable all the time I might as well buy a laptop for the same money. If they were to triple the battery life and drop to price to $600 it would fly off the shelves, but right now, I think most people are better off waiting for the iPhone - hopefully that will live up to some of its hype.