Interesting Uses of Camera Mobile Phones To Stay Productive
Some creative and productive uses of camera mobile phones (and digital cameras):
Computer Screen Capture - You can use the Mobile Phone cameras for capturing screenshots of error messages that popup while you are reinstalling a copy of Windows or modifying some BIOS settings. In situations like the dreaded Blue Screen, Print-Screen key is useless but any phone-cam will get the job done.
Remember Dates - Some time back, I had gone to a nursery school for submitting the admission form of my son. I don’t remember the exact date now but luckily, I had snapped a picture of the school and so that date is automatically stored with the image.
Cable Connections - Before removing the cables from your home theatre system, gaming console or the computer, it is a good idea to capture the connections with your phone camera. Then you won’t have problems plugging the cables again in the right ports as the pictures will show you “what goes where”.
Use Mobile Phone as a Web Camera - There are some free utilities that will convert your mobile phone camera into a web cam for your computer. You can use the web camera via a USB cable or wirelessly through Bluetooth.
Car Parking - Most shopping malls here have huge underground parking but there aren’t any signboards so it gets tough to locate the car. So when you park the car, just look towards the escalator (or the exit door) and take a picture or record some video. This will save lot of effort (and time) when you return with all those heavy shopping bags.
Scan Printed Documents - Mobile phone camera can work as scanners for capturing clippings of text from newspapers, library books and printed magazines. Just photograph the page and use a service like Qipit or ScanR that extract the text out of pictures taken with a mobile phone. (See “Use Mobile Phone as a Scanner“)
Replace Paper and Pen - Your wife has prepared a long list of items that you are supposed to pick from the grocery story. Why tear down that paper from the diary or put extra pressure on your memory - just click. You can also use the camera phone for capturing information written on whiteboards, subway maps and notice boards.
Google Maps and Directions - You are traveling and need the driving directions from Google Maps onto your mobile phone. If your phone has no Internet or you are not too sure how to transfer data from computer to the phone, just open Google Maps, press F11 for full screen and click with your phone.
Rent A Car - If you are taking a car on rent, capture all the areas with dents and scratches so that you don’t run into a dispute when returning the car to the agent. Thanks CraftyGirl.
Security Weapon - Before you board a taxi in some unknown place, take a picture of the license plate and driver details that are generally written near the passenger seat. Email the picture to your spouse or friend as a security measure.
Shopping Alone - If you are in a store shopping without your spouse, get his/her opinion on the stuff you are about to purchase by emailing pictures though your phone. A word of caution here - some shop owners may consider your action as “digital shoplifting” and this may lead to an embarrassing situation.
As a Mirror - When you are about to reach the party, take a self-picture with your mobile phone to make sure that that makeup and hair style is in perfect condition.
Related How-To: Take Good Photos with a Camera Phone
If you have any interesting news related photos captured with your camera cell phones, here are some Citizen Journalism initiatives that may like to publish your pictures.
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Here’s another one: Capturing the whiteboard writings after a meeting.
I always do this at work. :)
Wow Amit! That is a pretty innovative and handy list :)
Dont mind if I blog about this :D
Amit, this has to be the best post on your blog yet. It’s tech being taken to the applications extreme. Great stuff. I especially like the idea of using it for security and orientation…taxis, car parks, you could even use the camera to create an invisible breadcrumb trail while out walking in woodland.
db
I don’t know why I never looked at my camera phone this way. Just the other day, I was at the store and called my wife to explain what something looked like. I could have done it much easier by sending a photo! Excellent post.
Soon you will be able to read barcodes with your cellphone camera as well. Software is being developed and patented that can handle Optical Character Recognition and Barcode decoding on your mobile. Warehousing and stock control can hopefully be simplified. Consumers can keep track of their favorite products by their barcodes.
I use my cell phone camera to shoot images & graphs in our LABs so that we can draw them later and are left with time in LABs to create a fuss. lol
Another semi-shopping-related use: if I see a book I’d like to read for sale in a store, I snap a pic w/my cell phone, then use that pic to remind me about that book next time I’m at the library…
I used mine to create a christmas list for my family. I just snapped a bunch of pictures of stuff I liked, downloaded them onto my computer with the memory card, and emailed them.
Also, I take pictures of something before I have to take it apart so I know how it goes back together. This could be applied to auto repair or anything else.
Once I saw a particular bookshelf that my wife liked. We would have bought it, but there was one thing she didn’t like. I took a bunch of pictures of it and read some measurements, and built one myself to her liking.
Great list! I have done some of these, but others (such as using the date stamp) never occurred to me. My husband and I use our cell phone cameras for grocery lists all the time - we keep the list on a whiteboard on the fridge, and when it’s time to go to the store, just snap a picture of the whiteboard. Saves trees!
I use mine when comparison shopping at different stores—a shot of the item and its price followed by a shot of the entrance to the store as we exit. Recently did this shopping for a new bedspread—trying to remember patterns and prices after visiting more than one store is doomed to failure—unless you snapped a pic of the items in question.
I use it when browsing books at the bookstore—a quick cover shot showing title and author saves me trying to remember what that book was that looked interesting the last time I was in the store. I’ve also used it to snap pics of an advertisement showing a URL in a magazine I wasn’t going to buy.
I use it when disassembling things for home repairs—nothing like a photo to show where all the parts were located before you scattered them across the floor.
I also use it when looking for replacement parts at the local building supply store. Often someone in the proper department can look at a photo and give an answer to a question that I couldn’t properly express due to a lack of proper terminology.
I’ve even taken a picture of a sick fish to the pet store in hopes of getting a proper course of treatment recommended by the staff there.
If I’m shopping with my girlfriend and she mentions she likes something or other, a quick surreptitious photo enables me to remember that item three months later when it’s her birthday.
‘There are some free utilities that will convert your mobile phone camera into a web cam’ Can you give links?
good points Amit. Parking one is funny :) . One more thing i would like go add - take snaps as citizen journalist plus as a social blogger
Btw, any idea how to utilize my iPhone’s cam?
When staying at a hotel I snap a photo of my room door to capture the room number. This is especially helpful when staying at a big hotel, or when traveling a lot and one hotel looks like the next. No need to carry the key card case with the room number written on it with the key cards, which is not too safe anyway.
Snap it and forget it.
Along the lines of another post, I also use the camera to note where I parked at the airport, which are bigger parking lots than at the mall in some cases, and definitely have a longer time between leaving and returning. Nothing’s more frustrating than returning weary from a trip and forgetting where you parked.
These other posts are great ideas, too.
Awhile back, I went to school in Shanghai for a month. I had difficulty getting taxi drivers to understand the name of the street that my dorm was on. Probably I wasn’t getting the tones right. So I took one picture of the street sign and another of the front entrance to the campus. I’d show these to taxi drivers who couldn’t understand my bad Mandarin and always got a big smile and a thumbs up … and always got home.
Hello Amit,
You really helped me. It’s a whole new ball game, with camera phone, from this post.
thanks a ton.
Thanks a lot. I’d never have thought of some ideas - the only “innovative way” I use my mobile’s camera is in lectures at university. Some profs don’t upload all of their power point folios and so I just take pictures of them instead of hectically writing down the folios AND the additional explanations.
We had a conference call with our web designer and I whiteboarded a new layout, took a pic, and sent it to him with my phone. The new site is launching soon with my ‘cell phone whiteboard’ layout!
Saved a lot of time for both of us!
what about make a TO-DO List for the day and click it and store it as wallpaper for the day…You can see your things to do throughout the day
You can also use it to check remote controller is working or not!!!
View your remote remote controller LED through your camera & press a key. You will see light coming from it, if it’s working. This is because camera’s can see Infra Red (IR) rays which human eye cannot.
Amit, Very useful and interesting article and comments. I do some designing so I also find use for my phone camera to take pictures/compare or use as reference. I also use my camera phone often as a substitute for scanner. Articles ( places & events too) so I remember to blog about them! Sometimes the picture quality is not good enough to upload as it is but it serves as a good reference. A blog related use:)
From the above list, i usually took my nokia 6120 classic to do this:
Use Mobile Phone as a Web Camera
Scan Printed Documents
Replace Paper and Pen
As a Mirror
ps: Love the bluetooth cam for yahoo msgr :)