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?)

Re:I have an iDea

[kannibal_klown]

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.

The new iPhone can also be used as a paperweight

[derGoldstein]

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.

Crosshairs plus Google Earth Data

[StCredZero]

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!

Re:Use them for what they are good for

[Nerdfest]

I would think something like the G1 would make a far better pointing device than an iPhone, as it has a compass, and can actually tell what direction it's pointing in.

Re:ultimate real world pointer

[oodaloop]

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.

Way to be fashionably late...

[pwfffff]

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.