A camera phone is simply a mobile phone which has the ability to capture photographs. In recent times, camera phones can as well record videos and used for video chats and calls. The first camera phone was sold in 2000 in Japan, and the name is the J-Phone model, although some argue that the SCH-V200 and Kyocera VP-210 Visual Phone, both introduced months earlier, are the first camera phones.
Having known the basic information of Camera phones, let's take a look at some tricks we can pull through with the camera apart from the fundamental function of taking pictures alone. You might be aware of some of the stuffs i will expose here but i bet you, there are ones you haven't heard or seen before so let's go there.
WHAT CAN I DO WITH MY PHONE CAMERA APART FROM TAKING PHOTOS?
1. Language translating
Sometimes you might find yourself in a foreign land or you just came across a foreign language flummoxed by a sign, menu or other piece of text. Don't worry as your phone camera can do the wonders with Google Translate (Android, iOS app) and you can get an instant translation through your camera.
Google Translate can utilize optical character recognition (OCR) to automatically interpret the text and translate it for you. it’s not perfect, but it can work surprisingly well and is faster than using the popular google word translate by typing.
From the front page of the google translate app, just tap on the camera icon and begin your search.
You don’t get access to as many languages as the text part of the app does (29 vs 103) but it’s still super handy to have, and you can load up a previously snapped picture too. Other apps that works in similar ways are TextGrabber + Translator (Android,iOS) and WayGo (Android, iOS).
2. Document Scanning
This one is one the important features i have been using with my camera phones for a very long time now. You can scan your documents and send to the cloud or to any email without the need of visiting a cyber cafe or using a traditional scanner hardware. This comes in handy whenever you want to scan something and send somewhere from any location you might find yourself.
The scanned documents can be converted into editable text. Examples of apps that can perform this scanning tricks are Evernote’s Scannable (iOS) is a decent option and Google Drive also has the same scanning functionality (though only in the Android app right now). CamScanner (Android, iOS) and Scanbot (iOS) are two more excellent options to consider for this important task.
3. Star Gazing
In the tech world, there is what we call "augumented reality" and it means a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world, thus providing a composite view.
Star gazing is one of the applications of augmented reality (or mixed reality). With apps like "SkyView (Android, iOS)", point your phone camera up at the sky, and you can pick out stars, constellations and more without the aid of a telescope.
Other similar star gazing apps are available, and as we’ve said, there are plenty more AR apps ready to overlay information on top of the ‘feed’ coming from your phone’s camera: take a look at Wikitude (Android, iOS) or Blippar (Android, iOS) for example.
4. Visual Search
Do you know you can search google with pictures instead of typing text? It's fun and at the same time educative. Many search apps allow you to "snap a picture" from your camera and use it to perform a search. For instance, if you snapped a photo of a product like a Laptop or smartphone, you would see available information about the product with the image search. Also if you snapped a photo of a tourist attraction, you’d as well see information about the attraction center, where it is located and lots more. Example of the visual search app in Android is the Google Goggles which offers an official Google visual search experience.
5. Solving Mathematics
I knew about this feature just last year and since then, it has been fun and educative at the same time. If you are the type of student that find it difficult to understand or solve maths problems, you can make use of your phone camera to perform the wonders with the help of an app called "photomath" To learn more about it and how to use it, check this post How to solve maths problems with phone your phone camera
6. Playing Games
Another trend and technological revolution in the gaming world is gradually diverting to the use of Augumented reality to play games via phone camera. One of the most downloaded augmented reality games is Droid Shooting. Turn any real-life boring background into a real life shooting fest as you deal with waves upon waves of droids that will come and attack you. Droid Shooting utilizes your phone’s camera and makes it a viewfinder or HUD (Heads-up-display) for the battlefield. You will also find a radar at your disposal, so you’ll always know where those vicious droids plan to attack.
As a shoot-em-up game, players will be treated to a wide variety of guns to choose from. To make it more challenging, you need to use your phone’s accelerometer to navigate and shoot droids from the screen, making you tilt your phone in all directions. If you are a casual gamer who needs a dose of entertainment in your day, then Droid Shooting could just be the best partner for your trigger-happy hands.
7. Barcode Scanner
Have you used WhatsApp web on PC before? Okay, if you have used it, you will be familiar with this function. WhatsApp web on PC cannot work except you scan your original WhatsApp Barcode and this happens in just a second. Just visit the WhatsApp website on your PC while the WhatsApp on your phone is active. Tap on the settings from the WhatsApp on your phone and select WhatsApp web. Then your phone camera will be activated, just face it at the barcode on your PC and viam! It will detect it and connect. From there, you can be chatting and using WhatsApp on your PC and phone. This barcode can also be used to search for products and other stuffs that makes use of the technology.
8. As A Mirror
This one is the most common use of your phone camera especially among the female folks. You see them constantly checking their face and makeups using their phone camera. Isn't it?
9. As A Security Component
Do you have an old camera phone that you ain't using anymore? Do you have more than one camera devices? The truth is that, you can use your phone camera for surveillance and security purposes just like CCTV
10. Checking TV And Decoder Remote Control
Another important use of your phone Camera is to check if a remote control is functioning. To do this, just let the remote control of your TV, decoder, etc face ur camera, then press any button on the remote controller and you will see a dull red light blink as you press the keys. This is made possible because the camera lens detects infrared beams which remote controllers makes use of. So before concluding that your remote battery is dead or the remote is faulty, use your camera to run a simple test.
11. Exam Malpractice
Lolz 😁 am not supporting exam malpractice ooo. Am just using it for educational purposes so don't kill your career by using this on exam halls. Having said that, students use their camera phones to snap any page 📄 in a text or note book that they feel would come out in the exam and all the will do is just go to gallery during the exams and copy from the snapped exam cheats. Some also use screenshots instead of rear camera.
12. Detecting Hidden Cameras
Do you know that there are hidden CCTV spy cameras in some many hotel rooms? Well, you can simply use your phone camera to figure out the particular spot where the camera is mounted especially in dark rooms. Just take a shut in a dark room, if the picture shows signs of rays of light, then there's a camera in the room. This is not just applicable to hotel rooms but any other dark place with surveillance camera.
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Others are:
13. Getting Names Of Any Animal
14. Measurement of Distance
I hope you enjoyed and learnt something from this article. If you have any other uses of camera in the camera phones, you can let us know by commenting on the comment section.
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ReplyDeleteGood article.4 and 12 are impressive.will be using them for sure.
ReplyDeleteNice post. i love number 12
ReplyDeleteBeautiful
ReplyDeleteI must commend your efforts and i have greatly benefited from this article.
ReplyDeleteThere some points which i never knew that we could achieve such via our camera.
This post has also helped me in knowing when the first camera was produced and its name also.
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna drop some questions for other readers to crack their brains
ReplyDeleteThis post has also helped me in knowing when the first camera was produced and its name also.
ReplyDeleteThis post has also helped me in knowing when the first camera was produced and its name also.
ReplyDelete