On Wed, 30 Mar 2011, Ed C. wrote: > Mike Miller wrote: > >> On Wed, 30 Mar 2011, Ed C. wrote: >> >>> Otherwise it means there's app for turning your smart phone into a >>> burning lens. >> >> I like that idea. This makes me wonder -- do any smart phones have >> built-in laser pointers? I could use that now and then. Of course >> you'd want it to be definitively inactivated most of the time or >> "eye-phone" could earn a very negative connotation. > > Apparently they have had, at least experimentally. Whether it was > visible light for pointing at paper or an activating beam for pointing > at photodiodes or photoresistors isn't clear: > > http://hci.rwth-aachen.de/materials/publications/ballagas2005d.pdf Sounds like a prototype. I just like the idea of packing all the functions I want in my pocket into one container. If it had a little pen in it, I could use that, too. Kinda like a Swiss Army knife -- OK for a lot of stuff but not necessarily great at any of them, but you like the convenient packaging. I use my phone as a flashlight (who doesn't) or a mirror (mine has a little mirror on it, but the screens are pretty reflective when turned off) or a calculator, etc., etc. Laser pointer could be handy. If it had IR and could work as a universal remote, that might be fun. Mike