Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

AURA stands for Advanced User Resource Annotation. Behind the fancy name is an amazing technology that enables the Windows Mobile devices to read product barcodes and pull up product information. This software is one of the many useful concepts being demonstrated and tested by Microsoft Research. It is the kind of technology that will makes our lives simpler and more productive. Every time you go shopping or you are in the library, and want to get more information on a product. Whether it is the reviews or the price in the competing stores, AURA shows how it can be done in a snap. The other big use for this prototype is that we can now record and track the products that we own. I am sure you have thought about maintaining a list of all the DVDs in your video collection, or all the books, CDs and games. If the product has a barcode then you can track it. This is something that I have always wanted to do but never had the means. Soon I will be able to do it with ease, with my handy Windows Mobile smartphone. :) In the future AURA will also be able to take advantage of other product tagging systems like RFID, but the current version is limited to barcodes.


Figure 1: Notice something weird about the Dash?

Barcode is present on pretty much every product in the store. Our Windows Mobile camera phones have the means to capture them and have the processing power to recognize them, but one of of the biggest limitations of the camera phones in the market is that they have fixed lens or fixed focal length. What it means is that they are suitable for shooting pictures of objects within a certain range, but if they are too close or too far away then the images will not be sharp. This limitation prevents the current Windows Mobile smartphones from taking sharp pictures of barcodes at a close range. Blurry pictures are not good candidates for the barcode recognition software. Microsoft Research team for AURA is providing free lens kit for folks who want to participate in the BETA testing. I signed up and got a free lens for my Dash, that is what you are looking at on my Dash. This special lens adapter enables my Dash to take sharp pictures of the barcodes. If you are interested in learning more about this helpful technology then continue reading.
Special Lens Adapter
Let's first check out the special lens kit that enables the Windows Mobile devices to take macro photographs. Without this lens adapter the camera, as mentioned earlier, will take blurry photos of the barcodes. We will see it in action shortly. In the future once the camera phones start supporting movable lens and auto focus, this special adapter will not be needed.


Figure 2: This is the lens kit adapter that I received from Microsoft Research AURA team. Click on the image for the hi-resolution version.


Figure 3: The lens adapter comes with a sticky pad. Click on the image for the hi-resolution version.


Figure 4: Another angle showing the special lens mounted on the Dash. The lens adapter can be moved out of way of the camera lens, so that we can take regular photos. Click on the image for the hi-resolution version.

Test Drive
To demonstrate the capability of Microsoft Research's AURA client for Windows Mobile, I am going to have it scan the barcode for this Sony product and see if it can identify it.


Figure 5: I am going to try scanning the barcode at the bottom of this Sony product.


Figure 6: The AURA client has a simple interface.

The Scan soft-key button launches the native camera application. The following screen shows the Dash taking a picture of the barcode. You can see that I took the photo at an angle, to make it hard for the barcode recognition software. ;-)


Figure 7: Screen shot of the camera application on my Dash taking a picture of the barcode on the Sony product.

The AURA client automatically reads the barcode from the photo and submits a request to the Microsoft site with the barcode information, to look up the product information. It then shows the product description in the pocket Internet Explorer.


Figure 8: Screen shot of the pocket IE showing my most recently scanned item at the top, the "Sony M-570V Microcassette Voice Recorder."

Clicking on the item link shows me the product details and also links for finding the product on Amazon.com and MSN Shopping. I will show that shortly. Let us take another look at the client capabilities.


Figure 9: The screen shot of the simple client interface. It shows all the items that were recently scanned.


Figure 10: The menu options.


Figure 11: The extended menu options.
Read more...

"Web Information Solutions, Inc., is announcing its full support for Windows Mobile 6 today. Web Information Solutions� products include the award-winning and top-tier Pocket Informant 2007 Rev 3, FlexMail 2007 Rev 2, FlexWallet 2006, and VoiceMinder 1.6 all have been adapted to work especially well on Windows Mobile 6 devices - as well as current Windows Mobile 2003 and 5 devices. Furthermore, WebIS is announcing that its upcoming FlexMail 2007 Rev 2 release will not only bring some of Windows Mobile 6 Messaging features to Windows Mobile 2003 and 5 users such as full HTML email support and keyboard shortcuts, but will massively improve upon the Windows Mobile 6 messaging with full folder search, a refreshed interface, full two way IMAP IDLE support, a new Account template feature for common email ISPs and much more. In addition its upcoming Pocket Informant 2007 Rev 3 release will also include a new Today plugin, Contacts Search improvements that go beyond Windows Mobile 6, Timed Category Filters, and many redesigned user interface features to match and work with Windows Mobile 6."



WebIS, the makers of fine software applications like Pocket Informant and Flex Wallet, are announcing full support for Windows Mobile 6. Wish there were more details about the Smartphone related updates in this press release.

"Mobile and Embedded DevCon (MEDC) is a global connected community of events focused on collaborative learning, shared knowledge and practical hands-on development featuring more than 200 technical sessions and labs. This annual event is tailored for the developers, IT professionals and business professionals who are looking to innovate and scale their mobile and or embedded development investments, applications and solutions."



MEDC 2007 will take place at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas between May 1st and 3rd 2007 with pre-conference tutorials on April 30th. You can register now to take advantage of the early-bird pricing and save $400 off the registration price. The details of the talk tracks for this conference are not available but you can be sure that there will be plenty of application development sessions and plenty of fun, last year the Sumobots were a big hit. Also, there is a possibility that the next version of Windows Mobile, the Crossbow, might be announced at this conference.

"If the Excalibur is nothing more than a figment of the smartphone community's imagination, the level of Photoshop skill required to keep us fooled continues to rise by leaps and bounds. Check this composite shot out, fr'instance -- as we mentioned before, the rumored QWERTY device from HTC will clock in 2mm thicker than the 11.5mm Samsung i320, and the side shots here (if legit) confirm that 13.5mm ain't bad at all. If this thing is piquing your interest, T-Mobile just might have your hookup before too long."



Engadget has managed to obtain another image of the HTC Excalibur, and this time it looks like the image is from a product marketing brochure. Engadget may have their sources but our readers will be happy to note that we too have our sources. ;-) Our source is telling us that the Dopod version of this QWERTY Smartphone will have a more refined look, significantly better keyboard and this is interesting - the Dopod version will not have the touch jog strip instead it will sport the traditional jog dial.

"CellTrack is free and open source utility for tracking the location of GSM cellular phones. Currently C500 smartphones running Windows Mobile are supported. A free CellTrack client can be downloaded and installed on your phone. This runs in the background and collects information on the GSM cell towers in your phone's vicinity. This information can be used to estimate the geographical location of your phone. The client can be configred to automatically perform certain actions when the phone location changes. For example, CellTrack can be configured to automatically switch your phone to silent when entering work, or to divert all calls to your home line when you are at home."



CellTrack is a software that can run on HTC Typhoon (C500/SP3i/SMT5600) based Smartphones and report your location using the GSM cell tower information. The beta version of this application does not have all the features implemented yet, but I love the concept and its potential. 8) You can configure this application to report your location information to the central cell tower database and soon you will be able to do cool things like displaying your current location on your blog, website, or forum signature. And one piece of advice, don't let your spouse find out about this application. ;-)

"Information visualization takes the digital bits of information stored on a computer, personal digital assistant (PDA) or Microsoft(R) Window Mobile(TM)-based Smartphone -- such as documents, Web pages, e-mail messages and schedules -- and displays them visually, rather than as text. This technology benefits users by exposing patterns and trends in the torrent of data they work with daily, so the most important information becomes automatically visible."

This is an interesting read about something most of us deal with everyday. The bombardment of information we receive and how to absorb it can become a big problem for us at times. Of course one way to solve this issue is to just go live in the woods but what fun would that be? :lol:

This "article" about Mitac Mio 8380 is a not-even thinly veiled English version of the Hong Kong press release, but we're not complaining because it's more information than we've seen before about this phone- at least in English. Did we learn anything new? Well if you haven't seen the screen on the Mitac, it's very bright and, I guess, transflective since the press release mentions it's optimised for both indoor and outdoor use. We also learn that the 640 x 480 camera has auto focus and auto brightness. I can't wait to see the quality of the pictures from this baby.

Other than that, we're told many things we already know (like it has a real web browser), we get alot of p.r. hooey about m-life (I wonder what AT&T thinks of that), and how important Hong Kong is to Mitac's plans for Asian domination. But it does include this summary that will make you weep tears of pride:

"The Mio 8380 provides a greater range of added functionality than traditional mobile phones, which typically support only basic personal information management and data synchronization with Outlook. Users of the Mio 8380 can retrieve e-mail anytime and from anywhere, as well as use it to browse the Web and keep up with the latest information. With the Mio 8380, the mobile phone has been transformed into a miniaturized computer, allowing users to perform tasks usually reserved for a PC--such as enjoying video, browsing digital photographs, playing games, and listening to MP3 files. As the development of wireless communications technology and markets moves toward the incorporation of such features as color screens, data transmission, and multimedia playback, the Mio 8380 Windows smartphone and its successors promise to be leaders in the field."