TechWatch: Bango Links Camera Phones Straight to Mobile Content

That's a Baywatch Spot, with the Bango Spot in the right top corner
Increasingly, it seems camera phones are being used for more than just taking pictures (for example, read our story yesterday, “Combining Camera Phones and Gaming“: Bango, a UK-based mobile content/billings solutions provider, has launched a CueCat like application for camera phones to access mobile content. It’s “Bango Spot” is a circular symbol that holds data like a two dimensional bar code. Users point the camera phone at the symbol, click and a mobile Internet site opens on their phone, providing an ostensibly faster way to reach content such as ringtones, games, videos and pictures.

Each Bango Spot holds a numeric identifier. The reader software extracts this number, and sends it to the Bango servers, where it is mapped to content. This content is then displayed in the phone’s browser. The Bango Spot reader software works on any camera phone equipped with the Symbian operating system including the Nokia 7650, 3650 and 6600, and the Sony Ericsson P800 and P900. Support for second generation Java phones, including the Nokia 6230 and Sony Ericsson Z1010, will be added in Q2 2004.

This technology, besides being embedded in physical signs, can be used on T-shirts, hats and even built into tattoo designs. The technology behind Bango Spots has been developed by High Energy Magic, a new company spun off from conducted at the University of Cambridge. The reader software uses advanced image processing techniques and probabilistic error detection to compensate for the low resolution and fixed focal length of current camera phone optics.

Comments have been disabled for this post