One of the questions that’s often put to MMM, is that of who’s doing what in mobile? Meaning, where are the experiments and successes happening. That’s one part easy and hard – because usually, while the question comes out like that, its better worded, “who is doing something decent in mobile that we can adapt to our efforts?” That a much harder question to answer, and one that is wrought with all kinds of challenges.
Nevertheless, there are some experiments and successes which should get mentioned because they do model some templates of use, or at least offer up some inspiration behind what’s possible with mobile. Here are a few that we like:
Gol Airlines – Mobile Check-In
A recent example seen which combines SMS, PC web, and a bit of augmented reality by controlling the browser with the mobile. The video speaks for itself (via Open Gardens).
Salisbury Steak (Voice Actress and AR)
Pointed to by the folks at Wireless Watch Japan, the Salisbury Steak campaign being put on by Denny’s Japan merges an augmented reality (AR) game with a popular actress to take “waiting for your food to come” to another level.
Read more about this campaign at Asiajin.
QR Code Holiday Campaign by the Austrian Postal Service
This was mentioned on the MSearchGroove article about opportunities with mobile barcodes. We linked to it a few times before, but wanted to highlight what was done here as innovative and something that could be easily reproduced by any church/org who is already spending some capital on marketing, paper, and has access to any of the various sites that make QR codes from data (Kaywa, Google Charts, etc.).
Translation Using a Mobile Camera and A Web Connection
Two applications do this and its outright neat and as forward facing as it comes. Kamera Jiten (Camera Dictionary) is an application and has been a feature on many Japanese mobiles since 2006. A similar application caused some buzz this year called Word Lens (demo at YouTube) – which is available for the iPhone/iPod Touch. In both cases, its not just the action of translating, but the connections that are no longer limited by spoken language barriers.
Kids, Play, Education, and Touch
There were a number of solid items that could be plugged in here, but some of the projects that are going on in this space include the NIKVision Project, a list of online and embeddable physics games from Interactive Multimedia Technology, and Siftables programmable, stackable, blocks.
Taking Existing Images, Adding More Interactive Data
I thought that ThingLink is really neat for really being simply a means to tag images. But imagine what can be done with this product and the larger, kiosk-like displays that many churches use in foyers (check out this example in use around Christmas). It could be pretty neat, and also very engaging. Check out the video and their website for more.
The MMM Mobile Web Server Experiment
You’ve heard us refer to this experiment before. Quick summary, we ran this entire website/magazine off of the Nokia Mobile Web Server project for eight (8) days, logging our impressions, and answering the question if the use of a mobile web server is an option that individuals should consider in some contexts. Read the report (PDF and Google Doc versions).
The Nokia product is no longer available, though there is a similarly-featured product (iFMW) that is available for Symbian, Andorid, and iOS devices to do a similar kind of work.
Surely There Are More?
There are a slew of other successes noted around the web, we found a few more at Living Labs Global’s Showcase. Projects which do everything from replacing loyalty cards to utilizing sensors in mobiles to improve local environmental knowledge and behaviors are noted there.
Are you doing something in the mobile/web space that’s either an experiment towards what’s possible, or already a success for you and others? Share it with us in the comments and let’s continue to spark one another to doing some great things in mobile.