Pointing may be impolite, but the Japanese are about to get a lot more of it…and out of it

San Francisco-based GeoVector has teamed up with Mapion (the original Yahoo! maps developer) to enable some GPS-equipped Japanese mobile phone users to “Click on the Real World(R).” In other words, they can download information on over 700,000 Japanese locations just by pointing their phones at them. While use of the technology undoubtedly will carry a nuisance factor – imagine even more people constantly walking around with their cell phones sticking out in front of them – the potential applications sound very cool. Says GeoVector president John Ellenby:

“Soon, users will point their mobile phones at restaurants to get reviews, point at billboards to shop at the advertiser’s website, point at a movie poster to buy tickets, or play a game by pointing at their friends.”

How about finding out road construction info by pointing at sedentary work crews? Or maybe getting a train schedule by pointing at a railroad crossing? Or even finding out about the inside of a jail cell by pointing at an oil refinery?

An Australian photography club was recently harassed by police for pointing their cameras at a Shell facility, which recalls incidents in which tourists in America and Europe got some unwanted attention for filming bridges and other elements of infrastructure. It didn’t happen in Japan, but in an age when authorities all over are jumpy over the threat of terrorism (and well know that many phones contain cameras), it might be a consideration for people using the new technology, especially as it broadens into more locations. And of course now that the US Department of Justice is interested in who is searching for what, they might take notice of someone using a GeoVector/Mapion style service who swings their phone around on the DC Mall.

Of course that’s all just speculation. After all, at the rate some Japanese technologies are making their way to the US, Americans might not see a real life point n’ search until after there is no more terrorism. Newsfactor reported Monday that some 15 million Japanese have left paper money behind in favor of electronic money carried on “smart cards” or, you guessed it, cell phones. The Japan Research Institute estimates that up to a third of the country’s population (about 40 million) could be cash-free by 2008. But due to the more fragmentary nature of the US telecom market, analysts aren’t seeing a similar surge in US e-money anytime soon.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 1st, 2006 at 11:56 am and is filed under Search: Local. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.