To take a phone number from a billboard or business card, simply photograph it. OCR software on the phone searches for the phone number and gives you the option to call it immediately or store it.-- david_scothern, Nov 11 2004 And capture criminals http://www.halfbake...ed_20Flash_20Moment [theircompetitor, Nov 12 2004] Put a VisCode on the billboard? http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/VisCodeThe OCR on a VisCode would be clear as a bell. (Or a Bell, inc.?) [not_only_but_also, Nov 16 2004] Bar Codes http://www.gizmodo....ants-service-026198Well, they've done it, D. [contracts, Nov 23 2004] baked, by LG http://www.engadget...y/1234000893021931/a phone with OCR (and apparently not the first) [neilp, Nov 30 2004] That's almost sensible and logical.-- hippo, Nov 11 2004 That, and a few more features like it might convince me to get a camera phone. [+]
(wish it had a more informative title, though)-- st3f, Nov 11 2004 [david_scothern] this is a fine, fine idea, and entirely bakeable. General ocr would be handy to either email or SMS content.-- neilp, Nov 11 2004 [drone employee of major telecoms corp dutifully takes note] [+]-- DocBrown, Nov 11 2004 excellent. of course the police will be catching your registration plate on their mobiles pretty much after that. I said that like it was a bad thing!-- po, Nov 11 2004 I have moral objections to your cameraphone. I'm going to have to confiscate it, and smash it. (Oh, and a tenuous [+] for the idea - - that would have to be some *damn* dynamic OCR software. Modern OCR engines still have difficulty with output even from scanners with a clear, flat image, scanned slowly, head-on, and under bright light.)-- contracts, Nov 11 2004 [contracts] there's no reason why the OCR s/w need actually be on the device - it could send the picture away to an OCR webservice and use the response. In fact.. if it could do this it might be useful for those mapping/ 'where the hell am I ' sites.-- neilp, Nov 12 2004 You're completely right, [neilp], except for the completely wrong part. What software would they use? There isn't OCR available that is good enough. (Regardless, I bunned the idea, btw . . . it remains feasible. Perhaps if the images are sent to India, translated into something that resembles numerals.)-- contracts, Nov 12 2004 Maybe the phone number could be stored in one (or two) of my VisCodes? (See link)
The OCR on a VisCode would be much clearer than text/digits.
:)-- not_only_but_also, Nov 16 2004 Wow! See the link. [David], they've got your oven tapped.-- contracts, Nov 23 2004 it seems this is now baked (see link).-- neilp, Nov 30 2004 random, halfbakery