It’s natural to want to use mobilephones with cameras as portable docu-
ment scanners and copiers. However,these cameras tend to produce photosexhibiting background noise, soft focus,shadows, and poor alignment, and theyhave relatively small resolutions. ScanRand NEC are addressing these limitations.
ScanR is offering a service that usesproprietary image processing and datarefinement technology to improve thereadability of document images takenusing mobile-phone cameras. You emailScanR images you’ve taken, and theservice returns the enhanced images asPDF files (see figure 1). Alternatively,ScanR will fax the resulting documentsto a number you provide.
NEC is developing technology in col-laboration with the Nara Institute of Sci-ence and Technology in Japan that letsyou easily generate a high-precision scanof a document. Using the technology,you take a movie of the target documentwith a camera phone. Software runningon the phone analyzes the movie, derivesseveral dozen still images from it, andstitches them together into a high-resolution scan. With a one-megapixelcamera, scanning takes three to five sec-onds and produces 21 to 35 still images.To address copyright concerns, NECplans to have phones equipped with thistechnology sound an alarm while it’s inuse. NEC says commercialization of thetechnology is three years away.
CELL PHONES ASENVIRONMENTAL SENSORS
Researchers at the University of Cal-ifornia, Berkeley are leveraging cellphones’ ubiquity to build massive geo-graphic information systems that couldhelp reduce pollution or monitor radi-ation levels. The key idea is to outfitcell phones with inexpensive environ-mental sensors while leveraging thephones’ existing networking capabili-ties and ability to track handset loca-tion, either via GPS receivers in thehandsets or technology within the cel-lular network. Together, these capabil-ities provide an opportunity to gather
Figure 1. An image enhanced by ScanR: (a) the original and (b) the enhanced version.
(a) (b)
geospatial data at a higher granularityand with greater coverage than previ-ously possible. The researchers aredeveloping a carbon monoxide sensorfor cell phones and anticipate that, intime, a cell phone-based CO detectorcould enable environmental scientiststo monitor and track pollution indensely populated areas.
HYPERLINKING THE REALWORLD
NeoMedia has developed a systemcalled PaperClick that maps physicalobjects to Web pages, letting objectsserve as hyperlinks. You create amachine-readable identifier by, forexample, scanning an associated barcode, specially designed symbol, or key-word phrase. The PaperClick Resolu-tion Service then maps this identifier toa URL. Although the system can sup-port a variety of usage modes, Neo-Media is offering a mobile phone-basedservice. Using special software, youcapture the identifier by taking a pic-ture of it or entering the identifyinginformation manually. The softwarethen forwards the identifier to thePaperClick Resolution Service. Theservice maps the identifier to the targetURL and returns this URL to yourphone, which opens the URL. Based onthe company’s Web site, it doesn’t
appear that end users can select the con-tent that the company returns. Rather,the returned content is determined bythe consumer-product manufacturer orother entity that establishes the map-ping between the physical object andthe URL.
ENCODING COLOR IN BLACK-AND-WHITE IMAGES
Xerox has developed a techniquethat lets you recover a document’s orig-inal colors from a gray-scale version.When a color image is converted togray scale, colors with the same lumi-nance (perceived brightness) might bemapped to the same shade of gray, ren-dering them indistinguishable. TheXerox technique maps the colors in acolor image to low-visibility, high-frequency textures that are then appliedto the gray-scale equivalent image (seefigure 2). The technique can be used toincrease the discernability betweenregions of similar luminance in a gray-scale image. In addition, by reversingthe mapping, the color information canbe retrieved from an encoded gray-scaledocument. Practically, the encodingtechnique could be integrated intoblack-and-white printers and thedecoding algorithm added to scanners.Xerox hasn’t announced plans to incor-porate this technology into its products.
MULTIDEVICE FILESYNCHRONIZATION TOOL
Transparent Synchronization (Tsync)is a tool that automatically synchro-nizes files on multiple devices (forexample, laptops, home and office desk-tops, and PDAs), removing the need tomove data back and forth by hand.James Anderson, a PhD student at theUniversity of California, San Diego,created Tsync. The tool uses peer-to-peer and overlay techniques to providescalable, efficient transparent synchro-nization of multiple devices even whenthe machines aren’t simultaneouslyconnected to one another. Tsync organ-izes computing devices into an overlaynetwork with a tree topology and relieson probing and a root fail-over proto-col to propagate updates. Tsync is writ-ten in C++ and Mace and supportstransactional updates and conflict res-olution. A beta version of the opensource tool is available under the GNUGeneral Public License at http://tsyncd.sourceforge.net.
DEVICES
NOKIA NSERIES PHONESNokia has announced three new
mobile phones in its multimedia Nseries,each targeting a different market seg-
JANUARY–MARCH 2006 PERVASIVEcomputing 13
Figure 2. A technique developed by Xerox lets you recover a document’s original colors from a gray-scale version: (a) the originalimage, (b) the gray-scale image with texture embedded, and (c) the recovered image.
(a) (b) (c)
NEW PRODUCTS
N E W P R O D U C T S
14 PERVASIVEcomputing www.computer.org/pervasive
ment. The N71, N80, and N92 offer along list of features. The N71, from theNokia XpressMusic family, offers an
FM stereo tuner, a five-band equalizer,and support for audio and video for-mats including MP3, AAC, eAAC+,
WMA, JPEG, and MPEG-4. It offers a240 � 320-pixel display and two cam-eras, one 2-megapixel (1600 � 1200pixel) and the other VGA (640 � 480pixel). It operates on dual-mode wide-band code division multiple access(WCDMA)/GSM and triband GSM.The N80 offers a 352 � 416-pixel dis-play and a 3-megapixel camera withfeatures including four flash modes, 10scene modes, manual exposure correc-tion, and four color tones. The N80 isdesigned to work on 3G (WCDMA1900 or 2100) and four GSM bands(850/900/1800/1900). According toNokia, it’s the first handset to includeuniversal plug and play technology.This technology lets you use the phoneseamlessly with compatible PCs, audioequipment, and TVs—for example, todisplay video stored on the phone on aTV. According to Nokia, the N92 is thefirst mobile phone with a built-in DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting: Hand-helds) receiver, letting you watch andrecord live TV. It also offers a quartervideo graphics array, 16-million-colordisplay, a 2-megapixel camera, and 90Mbytes of internal memory. It operateson the same bands as the N71. The N71and N80 will reportedly be available inQ1 2006 in Europe, Asia, and Africa,and the N92 will be available in mid-2006.
DIGITAL CAMERANEUTRALIZER
Researchers at Georgia Tech havedevised a system that prevents digitalcameras from recording still and mov-ing images and doesn’t require cooper-ation from the recording device. Thesystem consists of a camera tracker thatdetects the presence of digital camerasand a camera neutralizer that directs alocalized beam of light at each camera’slens to obstruct its view of the scene.The camera tracker takes advantage ofthe retroreflective nature of the charge-coupled device sensor most digital cam-eras have, which causes light to reflectdirectly back to its source. The cameratracker consists of a video camera out-
Figure 3. Nokia Nseries smart phones (clockwise from left, the N71, N92, and N80).
Figure 4. An image taken using Georgia Tech researchers’ camera-neutralizing system.
fitted with an array of infrared trans-mitters. The camera tracker projects aninfrared light beam and uses computervision to detect retroreflective surfaces,which appear as bright white circularspeckles on the video camera’s field ofview. The camera neutralizer consistsof a projector that emits a pulsing local-ized light beam at each camera lens.The result is an effect similar to takinga picture against the sun, where theconcentrated light source overwhelmsthe picture (see figure 4). To prevent thecamera from adjusting to the lightbeam, the neutralizer alternates the pix-
els in the projected image betweenwhite, red, blue, and green. Theresearch team presented a prototype ofthe system with an operating range offive meters at the 7th InternationalConference on Ubiquitous Computing(UbiComp 2005) in Tokyo.
tured by Silicon Laboratories is a com-pact dual-band GSM/GPRS radio with
complete quad-band support. TheSi4209 is targeted for the ultra-low-costhandset market. The solution reducescost at the receiver front-end and ref-erence oscillator interfaces and requiresonly 10 external components. Whencoupled with an antenna switch and Sil-icon Laboratories’ Si4300 poweramplifier, the Si4209 transceiver createsa complete radio in only 2.3 cm2. TheSi4209 transceiver is available in a com-pact 5 � 5-mm, 25-pin, quad flat no-lead (QFN) RoHS-compliant package.Pricing begins at US$2.99 in quantitiesof 10,000.
NEW PRODUCTS
JANUARY–MARCH 2006 PERVASIVEcomputing 15
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEEPresident:DEBORAH M. COOPER* PO Box 8822Reston, VA 20195Phone: +1 703 716 1164Fax: +1 703 716 [email protected]: MICHAEL R. WILLIAMS*Past President: GERALD L. ENGEL*VP, Conferences and Tutorials: RANGACHAR KASTURI (1ST VP)*VP, Standards Activities: SUSAN K. (KATHY) LAND(2ND VP)*VP, Chapters Activities: CHRISTINA M. SCHOBER*VP, Educational Activities: MURALI VARANASI†VP, Electronic Products and Services: SOREL REISMAN†VP, Publications: JON G. ROKNE†VP, Technical Activities: STEPHANIE M. WHITE*Secretary: ANN Q. GATES*Treasurer: STEPHEN B. SEIDMAN†2006–2007 IEEE Division V Director: OSCAR N. GARCIA†2005–2006 IEEE Division VIII Director: STEPHEN L. DIAMOND†2006 IEEE Division VIII Director-Elect: THOMAS W. WILLIAMS†Computer Editor in Chief: DORIS L. CARVER†Executive Director: DAVID W. HENNAGE†* voting member of the Board of Governors† nonvoting member of the Board of Governors
E X E C U T I V E S T A F FExecutive Director: DAVID W.HENNAGEAssoc. Executive Director: ANNE MARIE KELLYPublisher: ANGELA BURGESSAssociate Publisher: DICK PRICEDirector, Administration: VIOLET S. DOANDirector, Information Technology & Services: ROBERT CAREDirector, Business & Product Development: PETER TURNER
rev. 10 Jan. 06
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BOARD OF GOVERNORSTerm Expiring 2006: Mark Christensen, Alan Clements, Robert Colwell, Annie Combelles, AnnQ. Gates, Rohit Kapur, Bill N. SchilitTerm Expiring 2007: Jean M. Bacon, George V.Cybenko, Antonio Doria, Richard A. Kemmerer, ItaruMimura,Brian M. O’Connell, Christina M. SchoberTerm Expiring 2008: Richard H. Eckhouse,James D. Isaak, James W. Moore, Gary McGraw,Robert H. Sloan, Makoto Takizawa, Stephanie M.White
Next Board Meeting: 10 Mar. 06, San Francisco
IEEE OFFICERSPresident : MICHAEL R. LIGHTNERPresident-Elect: LEAH H. JAMIESONPast President: W. CLEON ANDERSONExecutive Director: JEFFRY W. RAYNESSecretary: J. ROBERTO DE MARCATreasurer: JOSEPH V. LILLIEVP, Educational Activities: MOSHE KAMVP, Pub. Services & Products: SAIFUR RAHMANVP, Regional Activities: PEDRO RAYPresident, Standards Assoc: DONALD N. HEIRMANVP, Technical Activities: CELIA DESMONDIEEE Division V Director: OSCAR N. GARCIAIEEE Division VIII Director: STEPHEN L. DIAMONDPresident, IEEE-USA: RALPH W. WYNDRUM, JR.
