3pointD.com

The New York Times writes about “a missing link between cyberspace and the physical world” that comes in the form of a very 3pointD a GPS-enabled cell phone available in Japan that ties geolocative information into Internet-based data about your surroundings.

If you stand on a street corner in Tokyo today you can point a specialized cellphone at a hotel, a restaurant or a historical monument, and with the press of a button the phone will display information from the Internet describing the object you are looking at. . . . The phones combine satellite-based navigation, precise to within 30 feet or less, with an electronic compass to provide a new dimension of orientation. Connect the device to the Internet and it is possible to overlay the point-and-click simplicity of a computer screen on top of the real world.

The software in the phones was developed by GeoVector Corp. This is a nice step toward some of the kinds of things we were talking about at the Metaverse Roadmap summit — mobile technologies that access a layer of data mapped onto the real world. (Although we were also contemplating that data being stored in a distributed fashion as well, perhaps in RFID devices embedded in the world around us.) The article also mentions some other uses for GeoVector’s technology.

When will we have this in the U.S.? Who knows. Carriers are apparently reluctant to adopt the technology, according to the article, which is not unexpected. However, consider this: “Several industry analysts said putting location-based information on cellphones would be a logical step for search engine companies looking for ways to increase advertising revenues. Microsoft has already moved into the cellular handset realm with its Windows Mobile software, and Google is rumored to be working on a Google phone.”

Google phone? Yum.