Camera phone′s are truly getting better vision, each day more mobile phones are introduced with higher quality camera modules, more computing power, more memory and faster connection speeds, you name it and it’s getting better fast! This has not gone unnoticed by businesses and independent developers who are continually creating new innovative ways to use mobile phones to improve the everyday lives of consumers and to make businesses more efficient.

A key take-away from this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), is that the new smart phone camera standard for 2009 is 3.2 megapixels with auto-focus. This is great news for all of us, as it makes the ability to copy, scan and fax anything from anywhere available on a broader choice of mobile handsets, and these handsets are more affordable than ever.

Today we are launching the Qipit Mobile Copy API, which gives another way for developers to access and use a mobile phone′s camera sensor. For the first time, we are making our patented award winning image processing technology available for outside developers. This is the same technology that powers the Qipit mobile copy consumer service that people use to capture written and printed information using a camera phone or digital camera.

What the Qipit Mobile Copy API Does

The Qipit technology overcomes many of the challenges created by camera phone pictures, such as file size, resolution, framing, compression, noise, vignetting, illumination, glare, contrast, tilt, and skew as well as motion and optical blur.

The following pictures demonstrate typical problems when using a camera as a scanner. Poor contrast, blurred images, shadows, unwanted background and dark grayish images make pictures of documents, newspapers, and forms challenging to read, and very expensive to print.

Qipit’s technology overcomes these challenges by transforming a photograph into a crisp clean ink-on-white scan quality copy.

For more details on Qipit’s technology, take a look at the presentation The Camera Phone as a Mobile Scanning Device.

How people use Qipit

watch twilight in divx

Since the launch of our Qipit consumer service our customers have used Qipit in ways were never imagined. People use Qipit to capture everything from whiteboards and wine labels to class notes and floor plans. Users invoice clients, get forms back to the office and get deals closed on the spot. We even had someone copy a 350 page book. Now that’s dedication.

How the API Works

Designed for web, mobile, enterprise and government applications developers, the Qipit Mobile Copy API works on off-the-shelf high quality camera phones and does not require any additional specialized equipment. The API transforms photos (in JPEG format) of documents such as expense reports, signatures, handwritten notes, contracts and other business and consumer information into scan-quality ink-on-white digital copies or qipits using Qipit’s scanning engine. The processed qipits are received and returned in a JPEG format. Copies can be made either in color or in black and white. The developer handles end-user management and authentication. Currently, the developer’s server can communicate with the Qipit server using REST and SMTP access methods, more access methods such as SOAP will be rolled out in the very near future. Check out our developer page to get more detailed information, code snippets and documentation. Also be aware that this is the first version of the API, so we may still have a few kinks. You can think of it as a beta API version.

What to build?

Based on early alpha trials, we are anticipating that developers using the Qipit API will come up with a variety of applications for a range of professions, from entrepreneurs and consultants to large enterprises and the government. Logistics can track inventories in unconventional places, sales forces can get the signed deal documents back to the office in an instant, accounting can get expense receipts from the road and consumers can copy from anywhere.

Maybe you are a CIO facing pressure to get more out of your mobile workforce. In this case Qipit can push the point of capture of key documents to the earliest point in the organization, saving time and eliminating input errors.Maybe you are the Chief Development Officer for an e-tailer looking to create a more personal way for people to give gifts or flowers online.Or maybe you are a single developer looking to create the next killer application for the iPhone, Blackberry or Android platforms. What you build is up to you. We are looking forward to seeing what developers large and small create.

~ Conrad

P.S. Don’t forget to check out and sign up for the Qipit API, and let us know what you think.

As usual, I am making it easy with a free downloadable football squares template, and I have included the football squares rules.

Football Squares Rules

Within the grid, the top row of numbers represents the possible points scored of team one and the left column represents team two’s score. (The numbers are not placed in these squares until the players have added their names to the grid.)

All the players add their names to the other free squares within the grid. Depending on the number of players, some may choose more than one square. As soon as the players have filled in all of the squares, numbers from 0 to 9 are drawn blindly and filled in across the top row. This is repeated for the left column. When you’re done, you’ll have numbers from 0 to 9 in random order across the top row and down the left column, and names filled in all of the other squares.

The object of the game is to “choose” the score of the game by having your name in the square at the intersection of the final points of each team (as you draw an imaginary line down from team one’s score at the top and across from team two’s score). If there is a two-digit number, the second digit is used for the match. For example, if team one has 14 points and team two has 21, the person in the square at the intersection of #4 from the top row and #1 from the left column wins. You can have four winners by selecting the scores at the end of each quarter, two winners by using the half-time score and the final, or just have one big winner using the final score of the game.

Remember it is easy to make a copy for free using your camera phone or digital camera.

Take a picture of your football squares template with a megapixel plus camera phone (equipped with auto-focus), remember to leave a little bit of the background around the edges, as I did in the sample picture below.

Next, turn the picture into a qipit by sending the picture to color@qipit.com using email, picture messaging (MMS) or upload it using your computer. Qipit will turn your photo into an easy-to-read, printable ink-on-white digital copy.

Here are some of the details of the upcoming games.

NFL Playoff Schedule (All times Eastern Standard)

Divisional Round

Saturday (January 10, 2009)

AFC Game One at LP Field, 4:30 p.m. (CBS)
NFC Game One at Bank of America Stadium, 8:15 p.m. (Fox)

Sunday (January 11, 2009)
AFC Game Two at Heinz Field, 4:45 p.m. (CBS)
NFC Game Two at Giants Stadium, 1 p.m. (Fox)

Conference Championship Round

Sunday (January 18, 2009)
AFC Conference Championship, 6:30 pm (CBS)
NFC Conference Championship, 3 pm (Fox)

Superbowl XLIII

• home loan amortization schedule

Sunday (February 1, 2009)
SUPER BOWL XLIII, Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Fla., 6 pm
Kick-off: 6:28 pm
Super Bowl XLIII Half Time Show: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Have fun rooting for you favorite team.

~ Conrad

Vodaphone Blackberry Storm Ad

But with all the hype and reviews, not much about the quality of the camera other than the specs. The Storm has a 3.2 Megapixel camera with flash and auto-focus. That sounded great, but with all this anticipation and built-up disappoint over the iPhone’s camera, I was anxious to find out how well the Storm would work with Qipit.

So this morning I headed over to pickup my pre-ordered Blackberry Storm at the Verizon Wireless store. After a day of testing in the real world, I am happy to report the Blackberry Storm gets our highest Qipit test rating of 4 stars! That means it can caputre text as small as 6 point font. That is amounst the best performance of any camera phones (not quite as good as the 5 mega-pixel Nokia N95), but the Storm is certainly at the top of the heap with smartphones that have a full QWERTY keyboard.

Here are the results:

Blackberry Storm Qipit Test (Original Picture)

Blackberry Storm Qipit Test (Qipit Copy)

Click image to see close-up or download PDF

The camera has several setting options including image stabilization, picture size (2048×1536, 1024×768, 640×480), picture quality (Superfine, Fine, Normal) and Geotagging. By setting up email, you can send multiple attachments, this means you can make a qipit of a multi-paged document with ease. Just attach each picture in your email in the order you want the pages, then send them to color@qipit.com. If you want to name the document include that in the subject line and if you want to fax or email directly to someone you simply include the fax number or email address in the body of the email. That’s it and with the Storm’s keyboard typing this information is a breeze.

Oh yeah, here is some other news. Qipit is in this month’s PC World Magazine (December 2008 issue on page 104). Check out the qipit I made of the article using the Storm.

We are always happy when others help spread the word about how easy it is to copy and share magazines, newspapers and whiteboards with your camera phone. Now with the Blackberry Storm, it just got a lot easier.

~ Conrad

This week T-mobile, HTC and Google launched the much anticipated G1 smartphone (aka Google Phone) using the Android operating system.

From a hardware standpoint, we love the 3.2 mega-pixel camera with autofocus, finally! The phone also sports a keyboard, 3G internet connection, a browser, and of course it runs applications. These features will make it great for using Qipit to scan, copy and fax documents on the go. Simultaneously Google launched the Android Market, this is an application store that allows users to download applications for their new shiny mobile phone.

Verizon Wireless and Research in Motion (RIM) will soon launch the new Blackberry Storm that will also possess a 3.2 mega-pixel camera with auto-focus.

The twist for the Storm will be it’s revolutionary touch screen keyboard. RIM developed a new technology they call ClickThrough, which consists of a suspension system that lies beneath the display, so that when you go to select an application or enter text, you actually push the screen down like you would any other tactile button.The word is that the Storm will be out for the holiday shopping season, watching Verizon Wireless closely, I can say that they have everything prepared for the launch, so it should be very soon. RIM also announced they will launch a Blackberry Application Storefront in March 2009, with a similar model to the Android Market and iPhone App Store.

The significance of the software marketplaces is that it is easier for developers to get their applications to the users. The traditional process for developers to publish software through the wireless carrier is long, cumbersome and many times just not feasible, especially for vertical or unproven applications. Application marketplaces will allow the best applications to bubble to the top by letting the market place (i.e. the users) decide what are the best applications, rather than a handful of overwhelmed decision makers at the wireless carriers.

There is another flagship handset to note, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone (aka the Tube). This touch screen camera phone has a 3.2 megapixel resolution camera with Carl Zeiss optics and auto-focus. Are you seeing the trend?

Nokia has already launched the phone in London and reports it will be sold in the U.S. for the holidays.

Now the question is when will the far-sighted iPhone get an upgrade to compete with it’s keen-eyed competition? My prediction is that in the next iPhone design, the camera will not be overlooked. What do you think? I think all the stars are finally lining up.

~ Conrad

First things first, pack efficiently. As one of those people who likes to be prepared, I am always faced with a dilemma of limited space in my bag. My rule is that I never want more than what I can carry (or roll).

Use a shirt packing system

If I have time, I have my shirts boxed or folded at the dry cleaners. This is very convenient, but I don’t always have time to get that done. For shirts already on hangers you can use a shirt packing system. There are several brands to choose, I use one made by Eagle Creek that I bought at the Container Store.

Stuff your socks in your shoes

A trick I learned early on was to stuff my socks in my shoes. This saves room, and protects your shoes from getting squashed. Over the years I added using a plastic bag to protect the outside and to keep the bottoms of my shoes from touching my clean cloths. I just recycle the bags from the cleaners you get with boxed shirts.

Use Downy Wrinkle Releaser

Downy makes a great wrinkler releaser, just spray your cloths on a hanger, let it sit for a few hours and all those wrinkles are gone. I tried some other brands, but they did not seem to work as well. Another benefit is a fresh smell, this helps out if you get caught in a situation where you have to wear a shirt more than once (I don’t like it when that happens). Make sure you get a travel size dispenser.

I know seeing is believing, so here is a before and after picture. This only took 30 minutes, I usually pull out the shirts the night before, spray them and they are perfect in the morning.

Before

After

Pack a mobile office

The Container Store sells these great black mesh bags, I use them for all my miscellaneous cords and knickknacks. The pencil case is perfect for a miniature mobile office complete with a mini stapler, tape, pens, stamps and paper clips.

Fogless travel shaving mirror

Cutting yourself shaving while traveling is never fun. I put a stop to this by shaving in the shower with this handy traveler mirror.

Use your mobile phone for convenient scan and faxing

One of the reasons I joined the Realeyes3D team to work on Qipit, was that I recognized the need for an easier way to capture and share written information. I immediately thought how I already used my camera to copy whiteboards, but they were hard to read. I thought of all the times I was in a hotel room or at a convention and needed to send a last minute fax, only to find that either the hotel’s fax machine was broke or they wanted to charge me $5 a page in the business center. All of you road warriors out there will relate to not having the time to submit expense reports while in the office. It is nice to know you can make copies of all those receipts with your camera phone. You can even use Qipit to archive important travel documents , just in case you lose your passport. Qipit certainly makes it easier when traveling the world.

Hope these travel tips help make your travels a little easier, and please share some of your travel tips and secrets.

~ Conrad

Dilbert clearly illustrates why so many people use Qipit rather than buying a scanner. It costs less and can be used with your digital camera or camera phone, which you probably already own, and it is much easier.

I hope you have a fun and safe Labor Day Weekend.

~ Conrad

How do you send a fax, when there are no phone lines, power plugs or fax machines?

Ever since fax machines became a staple of business in the 1980’s this problem has faced business travelers, long haul truckers, construction site workers, emergency responders, sales professionals, anyone on a remote job site and people caught in an emergency situation after a natural disaster.

To solve this problem using existing wireless networks, you can take the brute force approach, and build a specialized piece of equipment such as a portable facsimile machine. The problem with this solution is that it is expensive and still a little bulky. One example of this approach is the Greta (aka PM-70), which uses GSM networks and costs almost $1,200 plus a monthly recurring wireless data plan.

Our approach is to use a device as familiar, cost effective and ubiquitous as the mobile phone in your pocket. Why carry any more than you need? Plus your mobile phone makes phone calls, sends texts messages, probably can check email and does a lot more. Even making a call with a portable fax machine can be a little awkward unless you are calling flipper.

LG Dare (3.2 Mega-pixel camera phone) from Verizon Wireless
Dimensions: 4.1″ x 2.2″ x 0.5″ (Weight 3.76 oz)
Cost: $199.99 plus monthly data plan

Of course there is a lot going on behind the scenes to allow you to use your camera phone to fax documents anywhere in the world. A traditional or portable fax machine has a very controlled environment to create scans. Qipit does not have this luxury and must compensate for uneven document illumination, shadows, glare, motion blur and noise. Qipit must also dewarp (or straighten) and crop the document to eliminate unwanted background information.

But you don’t need to know all that, nor do you probably care. All you need to do is take a picture of your document then send it to Qipit (copy@qipit.com). Include the fax number in the body of the message, if you want, type your fax subject in the subject field. It’s that simple, no need to buy any more equipment or download any software. Best of all Qipit is free and works any time and any where, just like you.

How to Send a Fax Using Your Mobile Phone

If you want to learn more about faxing with Qipit, just check out the post I did a while back, Four ways to use Qipit to Send a Fax for Free .

There is always an elegance to simplicity.

~ Conrad

Back in March, at the South By Southwest Interactive conference, yes this was the conference with the now infamous interview of Mark Zukerberg by Lacey Peterson, where twitter helped, well you know…..

Also checkout this graphical recording of the interview by Marilyn Martin if you missed it, click the image to see a full size view.

Now back to my point. At SXSWi, I picked up some information on Dan Roam’s new book “On the back of a Napkin”. For those of you who are not familiar with Dan, he is an author, speaker and thought leader in the field of visual thinking. In his recent book, Dan explains how simple drawings can express ideas that can be universally understood. Dan believes that anyone with a pen and a piece of paper (Dan likes to use napkins as he believes they are less intimidating) can convey the most complex business ideas, as well as communicate better with customers, vendors, and employees.

In his book, and in the video of his workshop below, Dan draws on twenty years of visual problem solving combined with the recent discoveries in the field of vision science, to lay out simple tools to take advantage of everyone’s innate ability to look, see, imagine, and show. In his workshop, Dan relates a simple example which takes us back to the days of elementary school. As kindergarteners we all knew how to draw and visually express ourselves. This is something I discovered to be true when I visited Westwood Elementary school a while back. Children at that age show no inhibition towards putting what they are thinking onto paper. But Dan points out, if you visit that same kindergarten class ten years later, hardly anyone will say that they can draw or use visual images to describe a problem. Something in the education process happens to push us away from visually expressing our ideas, even though it is so fundamental to how we think.

Here’s a video of Dan Roam’s workshop, from a visit he did to Google’s Mountain View, CA headquarters, this event took place on May 27, 2008, as part of the Authors@Google series.

The video is about 55 minutes, but I think it is worth taking the time to watch. In the workshop, Dan lays out our 6 visual pathways:

• What
• Where
• How
• When
• Why
• How Much.

Dan shares simple techniques to enable anyone to visually express even the most complex of ideas, but don’t just take my word for it. Here is a video interview by the Wall Street Journal of Tim Armstrong an Advertising Executive at Google. In the interview Tim explains how he uses a simple pen and paper as a visual tool to explain their advertising model, rather than a complex Power Point slide deck. His methods are exactly what Dan preaches in his book and workshops.

Dan’s techniques along with a pen, your writing surface of choice, and Qipit to easily save and share those ideas, make for a powerful combination. What do you think?

~ Conrad

Through out my life I have always been a visual thinker. Concepts seemed to solidify when I could see them, whether it was in an illustration, graph, chart or video animation, for me visualization is the quickest way to learn. Professionally my career has taken me to Asia, Europe and Africa, far from my roots in Texas, and when faced with language and cultural barriers my universal translator has always been a pen and a whiteboard, flipchart or a piece of paper, along with some visual expression of a concept, problem or question. People universally, seem to understand pictures and illustrations, charts and graphs, maps, timelines and flowcharts.

Visual thinking is so fundamental to how we think, that when the tools of visual expression are used can understand what our ancestors where trying to express over 32,000 years ago. This illustration is from a cave in Lascaux, France and is among the oldest known drawings in the world.

You can clearly see a bull running in a herd, and then you can imagine the animals that existed and how fundamental they must have been in the life of early man.

This got me thinking, if I was to express my life today what would a visual expression of my environment look like, there weren’t any cave walls close by so I used a writing surface more familiar, called a whiteboard.

The visual expression of my environment shows a computer, my mobile phone, buildings, construction, and a herd of cars (aka traffic). Of course the caveman was a much better artist than me. Please share a visual expression of your environment. We will store them here for future generations to ponder.

Check back next week for part two.

~ Conrad