Ambient Findability.. A Good Read

"What We Find Changes Who We Become"

Ambient Findability

Peter Morville gives us his outlook on the information interaction with mobile computing and the Internet. If you want to get an understanding of what Phase 2 will offer, pick it up.

It's another book that got me pondering.

Barcode To Internet Patent Followup

Last week I talked about a patent auction that included barcode(and RFID) to Internet intellectual property.

I had a chance to read all 28 of them I am providing their links. Some good reading.

Ocean Tomo, the auctioneer, will not reveal the purchaser or the amount. They do play an interesting role going forward though. This is all part of the New American Business Model

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For a detailed summary of each patent visit USPTO

To see the entire catalog of what patents were auctioned off.

Carnival Of The Mobilists #23

Wireless Data News Blog hosts this week's Carnival of the Mobilists.

Check out the CTIA reviews from some of the mobile bloggers.

QR Codes In Sound

Picturephoning found an interesting story about NTT DoCoMo developing acoustic OFDM (Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing) technology, which can then embed URL's and text data into audio.


"Consumers' mobile phones "listen" to the music/audio and extract the embedded URLs/data. About 100 characters can be transmitted in a second. (To deploy this technology, broadcast stations will need to install a dedicated encoder. Mobile phones need to be enhanced with a decoder mechanism as well.)

"DoCoMo thinks this technology can also be used at shopping malls and supermarkets. Then, the sound from in-store speakers would probably be delivering information about specials, ads, discount coupons, etc

Microsoft Connects The Physical World With Camera Phone

Finally Microsoft sees the big "picture".

In my opinion Microsoft's announcement of Photo2Search ,will send ripples through the mobile world. It will also be the tipping point for mobile marketing, mobile search and physical world connection adoption.
The camera on your mobile phone is your "mouse" and every physical object has, or will become, a physical world hyperlink, Phase 2 of the Internet begins.

This is how Microsoft can beat Google.

Microsoft introduces Photo2Search

Xie, a researcher for the Web Search and Mining group within Microsoft Research Asia, is working on technology called Photo2Search, which is designed to provide information on the go for users of camera phones.

“As the old saying goes,” Xie says, “a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Gates already made reference to this.

Maybe more, actually. Photo2Search gives users a way to search a Web-based database by using nothing more than an image captured by a cellphone equipped with a digital camera.

“This technology,” Xie says, “aims to solve the problem of mapping a physical-world object to a digital-world object. You see an object in the physical world, and you want to know the corresponding information in the digital world—for example, its price on the Web, user comments, or Web sites.

There are many different solutions. You can use a bar code or radio-frequency identification.

Microsoft is probably already developing an RFID browser. But using a picture of the object is very convenient and very easy to deploy.”

Photo2Search works like this: Seeking information about something seen, a user takes a photo of the object and sends the photo, via e-mail or Multimedia Messaging Service, to a Web-based server, which searches an image database for matches.

The server then delivers database information—whether it be a Web page featuring the object in the photo or information associated with the object—to the user, who can act on the information received: read a menu, enter a gallery, book a hotel room, make a purchase.

Now that Microsoft has announced their intent to connect the physical world with a mobile phone, look for this space to heat up quickly. Who companies are ripe for the picking? Any one of these

2D Codes And RFID Tags Help Pharmaceuticals With Counterfeiting And Connect The Physical World

The pharmaceutical industry will probably be the first to adopt physical world connection. Pfizer was the first to add RFID tags to their high volume Viagra drug.

It is estimated that 7-8% of the drugs world wide are counterfeit and the value of this will reach $75b by 2010. RFID has been hyped as the answer to this problem.

Until RFID tags are added to all drugs, there's another way to stop counterfeiting, the 2D code.

The 2D code and RFID tag are just two examples of a physical world hyperlink (PWH)

ATS Automation Tooling has partnered with Tesa to launch a new marking technology to combat counterfeiting of glass drug products.

The Validate system uses ATS's automated laser system to permanently mark product and supply chain information, including text, logos, lines and 2D barcode matrixes, into the glass packaging of a drug, using transfer film formulated by tape and label specialists, Tesa.

This method is non-ablating, the end result is very legible and can easily be read by traditional bar code readers.

Unlike RFID, the 2D barcode matrix can be read by barcode readers that are already widely available in the supply chain, thus bringing additional cost savings.

However, don't sell the RFID tag short.

SAP just recently announced an application that can read an RFID tag using a mobile phone.

SAP Corporate Research started work in 1998 to generate SAP applications that could be deployed on intelligent devices such as Nokia mobile phones.

Pharmacists can compare the Electronic Product Code (EPC) data encoded in a product’s RFID tag to the manufacturer’s records. This application now running on the intelligent device (such as an RFID-enabled smart phone) can read RFID signals from tags using near-field communication.

Who is developing an RFID "browser" for the mobile phone?

Both SAP and Nokia want users to take advantage of the latest developing technologies to access enterprise applications on mobile phones.

When you accept that every physical item will have a physical world hyperlink, you will then see how Google can connect the physical world

Sprint Introduces Family Locator

From Kansas City Star Sprint can help track kids

Sprint's Family Locator, will use Global Positioning System technology to let parents see where their phone-toting children are and, perhaps more importantly, where they’re not.

The $10-a-month service works on many current Sprint handsets and doesn’t require any new gear.

Using a small application downloaded to a parent’s phone, parents can log in and “ping” their child’s phone to see where they are. The parent application runs on 18 existing Sprint and Nextel phones.

“It’s not about tracking. It’s not about monitoring,” Dan Gilmartin, Sprint’s marketing manager for location-based services, told the AP. “It’s about giving parents and caregivers peace of mind that they’re able to find their children’s location.”

The service shows the child’s location on a map on the parent’s phone, pinpointing him or her within yards if the phone is outside. It’s less accurate inside, picking up the location within a block or two instead of feet.

Perhaps more importantly for some parents, Family Locator offers the first consumer-oriented geofencing service. The parent gets an e-mail or text message if a child isn’t where he’s supposed to be at a certain time.

"Geofencing", a new term associated with location based services.

Helio Bundles Yahoo Into 3G Service Phones

From 3G Helio bundles Yahoo applications on their 3G service

HELIO LLC and Yahoo Inc.announced a relationship to give Helio members access to one of the most extensive suites of Yahoo! services available from any mobile brand.


Helio members will stay connected to their favorite Yahoo! services such as Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports and more on Helio's 3G services.

In addition, Yahoo! and Helio will co-market the services across the Yahoo! network and other Helio marketing channels. The marketing efforts will showcase how easily Yahoo! users can extend their experience into the mobile environment with Helio's 3G network and high-end devices.

Helio is the joint venture between SK Telecom and Earthlink.

Physical World Connection......Through Music

Just as there are many forms of physical world hyperlinks (PWH), there are other ways to connect to the Internet besides using the optical character recognition feature of a camera phone.

When the phone "scans" a song (PWH), connects to the Internet, and delivers information back to your cell phone, you have created a physical world connection.

When you hear a song, just dial #43.
Hold your Cingular phone up to the speaker for about 15 seconds, then end the call.
You'll soon receive a text messaging telling you the name and artist of a song

MusicID is only $.99 per successful identification and billed directly to your monthly Cingular Wireless bill.

Before it was Cingular, AT&T Wireless initially offered this service in the US back in 2004

MusicID is also available for customers of Virgin Mobile USA. SongIdentity is available for Alltel.

Shazam provides the technology for MusicID, 411-Song and SongIDentity.
RocketMobile MusiWave , and GraceNote are some of the other providers of the service.

Gracenote makes music identification tools that are used by Apple's iTunes. Apple has been hinting at offering a cell phone service. See the possibilities?

Going the other way, using Gracenote's metadata technology and Nuance's speech recognition, you will be able to say "Play The Boss" and find all of Bruce Springeteen's songs.

This is another example of how your mobile phone will be used to interact with the physical world (real world), by using a physical world hyperlink, and retrieve information from the Internet.

Wireless carriers have adopted one form of PWC, but there are much bigger ones to come.

Did you know this is a PWH?

It's part of this list. Like I have been saying there are ENDLESS physical world hyperlink.

The number of PWHs, and ways to link to the Net, will grow exponentially in the next couple of years.

How Will A Camera Phone Be Like A Kiosk?

When camera phones have the ability to scan barcodes, they become kiosks, only mobile. What information will you want, or will the brand want to give you?

Price comparison is the only feature that the public thinks about when they hear a barcode can be scanned using a mobile phone.

The barcode, is really a hyperlink, and will allow access to a variety of information and services on any product, from any location, through the Internet.

From TMC Net Kiosks put shoppers in touch

Tamara Mendelsohn, a consumer markets analyst with Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research, said store operators, should look into kiosks to attract the elusive but lucrative pool of cross-channel shoppers, which she termed "key to revenue generation in the next era of retailing."

An example of a physical world hyperlink in use comes from Virgin Megastores. Virgin recognized that

Virgin Megastores customers can access the Virgin Vault, an interactive kiosk system that plays movie clips and music and offers access to reviews from independent publications like Rolling Stone or The New York Times. All a user must do is scan a barcode.

The company is looking into ways its kiosks can cross-sell items by suggesting a similar sounding album, style of video game or different movie featuring the same starring actor.

"They're getting 400,000 look-ups per month," Mendelsohn said of kiosks' popularity among Virgin customers. What would the number be if you could do this with a camera phone?

Imagine if Virgin introduced an application that allowed you to scan a barcode on any CD or DVD for a song preview or one minute trailer.

Why couldn't Virgin Mobile offer a music download service in conjunction with Virgin Mega Stores?

How Do You Target Mobile Ads?

This time it really is different. Mobile advertising will require permission and in order to get that, you must give the consumer something.

In my opinion, an effective mobile marketing campaign will involve giving a consumer more than a free item, but a "service" that will use cross marketing. How will you CONTINUE to reach that consumer?

I read the stats on a campaign and see the "success rate". These marketing campaigns are one time hits, there is a better way.

From TelecomWeb Targeted mobile ads will be tolerated

Advertising is making its way into the mobile industry, following in the footsteps of mobile marketing, according to a recent IDC study. According to a new report from the research firm, mobile advertising has the potential to offer a new way to add value to the mobile chain

What is proving to be the biggest headache is how best to introduce advertising via mobile handsets, due to the variety of business models from which to choose.

A new form of marketing application is the cellphone coupon provider. ( I believe mobile coupons will be a great tool for mobile marketing because the success of a campaign can be quantified immediately) There are also two revenue streams from it.

I have lots of ideas that will allow brands and mobile marketing companies to Interrupt this broadcast

Google Gets Voice-Based Search Patent

I am still undecided on how big mobile voice search will be, but if it is, Google has a patent for ONE component of it now.

Google has Voice Search in their Labs department but it never worked when I tried it.


Google gets location based advertising and now speech intellectual property, hey Microsoft you still have a chance at beating Google, this is how.

From Real Tech News Google wins patent on voice-based search

Patent number 7,027,987 covers "A voice interface for a search engine". Filed Feb 7, 2001 and received April 11,2006.

A system provides search results from a voice search query. The system receives a voice search query from a user, derives one or more recognition hypotheses, each being associated with a weight, from the voice search query, and constructs a weighted boolean query using the recognition hypotheses. The system then provides the weighted boolean query to a search system and provides the results of the search system to a user.

The conflict I see is determining if the user is searching or trying to connect directly with a word(s).
Does this cover search going through an open network, or within a specific database (closed network)?
Does this cover ALL mobile speech recognition applications?

Here's a biggie. Does it cover trademarks? Will Google learn their lesson from Geico? There are a few other potential conflicts I see.

What if there is a speech recognition mobile search engine that identifies individual word(s). I say "Google" and it takes me to www.google.com. It's not searching, it's connecting. What if I say a word that isn't in the database and it goes into a default search mode?

I wonder how the courts will define the difference of a voice search query and voice information/connect function.

This will be interesting to watch.

The Next Thing For Mobile Search

Working with a small screen and a tiny keyboard, there will have to be a better method of searching using a mobile phone. I have pointed out that it's really mobile info that we are looking for, not mobile search.

Om Malik has a story asking Is mobile voice search hot?

Voice based search companies like PromptU are using voice-based search technologies, where you speak into the phones and the search results are sent back to your handset.


Another company that is making a lot of waves in this space is San Diego-based V-Enable. The company showed off its search capabilities at CTIA and claims that it was getting 90% accurate results and was sending them back to the mobile phone in less than a second.

I got a chance to meet with the company and see their technology. It's very easy to use and I could see the applications for it.

The problem with voice moble search is knowing what the correct words are to get what information. In other words, you have to do a search, to do a voice search.

TellMe is a partner. Where Nuance is the "platform" for speech recognition, V-Enable provides the traffic with mobile applications.

Their intellectual property is how fast the keyword is compressed and matched against the database. They are currently talking to search and advertising companies for partners.

WamPad Offers A Great Mobile Search Site

Here's another great mobile search site I want to alert PP readers to. This has the makings for an "all-in-one" mobile search site.

WamPad or http://www.wampad.com

It's very basic today, but I have been told there will be more features in the works and no software to download to the phone. This site is designed to allow you to easily access a varity of information.

They have integrated the UPC database that allows price comparison using Froogle and Yahoo Shopping.

When using a zip code, you can view movie times, lottery results, weather and
horoscope.

You can also look up info on wikipedia, patent and flight information.

With someones username you can view a mobile viewable version of their Myspace, Flickr, del.icio.us profile.

Don't take my word for it try it out. It still has a couple kinks, but it's fast and I can see lots of offerings that will eliminate dependency on SMS searches.

Wherify Wireless CTIA

See their demo

I like this location based service and think some form of it will be at least implemented for child safety reasons.

Qpass And SimpleWire Text Message Vending Machine CTIA

This was one of the neat applications I saw from Qpass and Simplewire.

Just send a keyword(diet, coke, water) to shortcode (10958) to get a beverage. Here's the start of mcommerce.

CTIA Bluetooth Info

This kiosk allowed a user to download the CTIA program via bluetooth (another form of physical world connection)

Wideray and eMbience provided the service

Neven Vision CTIA

Dr Hartmut Neven Founder (left) Alex Cory CEO (right)







A recent campaign using a movie poster logo.



A recent mobile marketing campaign in Germany using the TV and mobile.

ScanBuy Offers Store Scanner

This is one of the physical world connection companies I interviewed at CTIA. What the article fails to mention is that ScanBuy has a new CEO.

Jonathan Bulkeley, the former CEO of Barnes and Noble, is now running ScanBuy.

From Red Herring Cameraphone as store scanner

Turning mobile camera phones into barcode scanners in the palms of consumers is hardly a no-brainer. It’s easy to imagine faster technologies, such as RFID scanners in phones, supplanting ScanBuy’s innovation, which relies on a steady hand and a focused lens.

But ScanBuy does have an advantage. The New York City-based company is zeroing in on markets like the United States and Latin America, places where mobile phones are used for little more than voice and text.



ScanBuy is not profitable yet, but it has filed 25 patents. It was that proprietary technology that lured Hudson Ventures.

To win a toehold in this emerging market, ScanBuy is starting out with a comparison-shopping product. ScanBuy has hooked up with engines like PriceGrabber so that its consumers can check online prices while browsing in brick-and-mortar stores.

In Spain, Mr. Attia has struck a deal with CodiLink , a mobile marketing firm that counts companies like Audi and H&M as clients. CodiLink has licensed ScanBuy’s technology and is building mobile marketing campaigns around it.

Although he can’t name any of Codi-Link’s clients, Mr. Chesser says one of them is a grocery chain that plans to offer mobile coupons that can be redeemed in any of its 50,000 stores

Before I get a flurry of complaints, YES an add-on lens is STILL required to read a 1D barcode with their application.

They are doing demos with carriers in the Far East and in Latin America.

The thing I found most interesting, is that ScanBuy brought in someone that experienced the shift from bricks to clicks. He was right in the middle of the electronic transformation. He agreed that this technology, industry, concept will be huge.

I will post my summary of what I think is happening with PWC and mobile marketing shortly.

Physical World Connection For The Disabled

A research project by Carnegie Mellon shows how powerful connecting the physical world through a mobile device will be.

From The Tartan Disability -friendly devices

Trinetra technology has just been installed in Carnegie Mellon’s campus store, Entropy, to make it easier for blind people to go grocery shopping.

This assistive technology works as follows: Imagine a blind man walks into Entropy and wants to pick up a bottle of mustard. As he walks past one aisle to another, he uses a UPC-reading Baracoda pencil integrated with his phone to scan the barcodes on the shelves under the products he browses.

The Baracoda pencil contacts the UPC database through the Internet-enabled phone and identifies the product. The information returned to the phone is then read out by TALKS , software developed by Cingular that was installed in the phone.

“When shopping with a store assistant, it is nearly impossible to browse products. I ask for what I need, and they take me to that product, and that’s it. A device that can tell me what just about anything in the store actually is is incredible.” says Dan Rossi.

One of the unique features of Trinetra that sets it apart from other ongoing projects is that it leverages available infrastructure. The developers don’t have to pay for the barcode (UPC) database; it is already available on the Internet