Modding Nokia Cameraphone To Be Mouse

ozg333 writes "This guy had the very clever idea of modding a Nokia mobile phone to work as a mouse by using the built in camera. It uses the phone's built-in Bluetooth to link to the PC, so cool! There is also a video of it in action. I can't wait to get one of these, it would mean one less device to carry when I'm travelling."

DIY Project?

[dawhippersnapper]

This might seem interesting as a DIY project, but it's a quite worthless gadget, while neat that it's possible, it shouldn't be big news.

Re:battery life

[tomhudson]

Not only that, but you have to hold it above your mouse pad, not in actual contact.

"Light is needed. My temporary solution is to hold the phone about .6cm above the pad, letting light in the side. My camera picks up enough to see at this distance."

Fake

[tliet]

What a joker. This is as fake as it can be. The video shows Windows and then it shows him moving his phone about.

too much time on their hands

[56ker]

The combination of having to hold it 0.6cm above a surface, plus the generally poor battery life of cameraphones makes it a little impractical for normal use.

Although kudos to them for writing the software to do this.

sounds cool but...

[jackjeff]

This is a cool hack, but i don't think it is "that" useful to replace a "laptop mouse".

Laptops have builtin trackpads... I assume people who use a mouse because
1) they need a more precise + ergonomic device than the trackpad.
2) have a shitty trackpad on their computer.

In both cases, I wonder if my Nokia phone is really an improvement for problem 1 or 2...

The only "useful" application is to show of in front of your friends :)

Negative comments

[vasanth]

I see a lot of negative comments here... what ppl fail to understand is that it is not meant to be a practical solution but a project for the sake of doing it... I enjoy working on small projects in my spare time which do not actually solve anything but just keeps me engaged and the stuff this guy done is cool from that perspective..

I don't believe a word

[stefanb]

This sounds like a really cool hack, but I don't believe a word of it.

I just took a sample shot with my 6230, and at 1cm, a printed page with 12pt courier on it shows essentially no structure at all, it's all too blurred. At closer range, the body blocks too much light for the camera to aquire anything. My wooden desk and various other things also didn't give any discernible shapes. Looking at the video and the mouse pad, I doubt the camera would see anything at all.

Even if it is possible to properly track the blobs, I doubt that you'll get high resolution from the typical phone camera. I believe typical optical mice have a resolution between 500 and 2000 dpi, and given the typical 640x480 resolution, you'd need optics to focus the camera on a rather small spot. The mice have these optics, the cameras won't (they're usually wide angle).

Re:Nice way to kill your battery ...

[Gli7ch]

Other "features"
- Look freaking stupid, pretty much all the time.
- Wasting the battery of an important piece of communications equipment that most people require for normal daily routine.
- Cramps and sore fingers from holding tiny phone between thumb and forfinger (look at tfa)
- Annoying static every time you get a phonecall or a sms.
- People talking about your mouse on slashdot,

It's a fun premise, but the only real reason someone would do it was "because they can". In reality, it'd be much easier just to use a normal mouse, or even *gasp* the touchpad.

Re:Nice way to kill your battery ...

[sr3d]

It's NOT about the BATTERY! It's about the clever idea. Yeah, people didn't make the first computer while they were afraid of wasting bulbs. I was amazed by this guy's work. It's creative engineering. I would personally challenge anyone here to do something like this and get on SlashDot. It's weird that people just like "this is normal, shouldn't be on slashdot" Well, that person shoudln't comment either because his/ her idea is not worth enough to get on /. The idea of the camera phone + mouse is something new and *c*o*o*l* (notice the spelling) that phonemakers should include in their phones. I don't use my phone to take photos because the quality sucks. But I'll be using the phone on the road as my mouse because It would bean any mouspad major @ss and one less thing to carry. How about a retractable USB cable to connect to the computer instead of bluetooth? That will help the battery if you are concerned. And how many geeks will seriously have a legitimate reason to invest in a new and "high-res" phone. How much money that would bring in for phonemakers? So, in the end, if you don't see the idea is brilliant, that's okay. But to me, it's pretty amazing. People are generally missing the point of things like the post about Dvorak. Dvorak is right on the money on his question and opinion while most normal people just don't see anything. Again, if you are good enough, do something that got featured on Slashdot before writing bashing comments. Otherwise Slashdot would become better without you and your comments.

Re:His Windows vs. Linux Article....

[remmelt]

Have you visited the Ubuntu forums lately? Not to sound fanboi (I am), but there are so many helpful, friendly people there, it's really amazing. Sure, they expect you to at least have a google at your problem yourself, but why is that bad?

Yes, there are people who will say you are stupid. Sometimes, they're even right. But if they aren't, you could just ignore them and listen to the 10 other people who actually provide a helpful answer.