Samsung SCG-S260 Cameraphone Using RealEyes3D?

Link: Samsung SCG-S260 Superimposing Cameraphone : Gizmodo.

Samsung’s SCG-S260 cell phone lets you dabble in compositing, allowing you to superimpose a handwritten note over another image. Just snap a shot of your note and your background image and let it work its magic.

Samsung’s technology partner has not been disclosed, but they might be partnering with French start-up RealEyes3D, whose Phone2Fun product family "allows camera phones users to send hand-written messages with text, drawings or pre-printed information".

In theory, this should make sending MMS more compelling … but in practice it’ll be an uphill battle:

Currently, about 2 Billion SMS are being sent per month in France, compared to 25 Million MMS per year. Sending a picture is compelling enough reason to use an MMS and the real blockage is the cost of sending one, not the lack of fun features. Sending an SMS costs a fraction of what it costs to send an MMS.
Besides high pricing, operators are equally notorious for poor marketing. Samsung cameraphones already sell well without this feature, which the user will perceive as a nice gimmick.
Now, picture a salesman at a retail store doing a demo and selling this service as a key service (see picture above): "let’s find a piece of paper" … "where’s my pen" … "ok, now I’ll write something cute" … "I need to take a picture of what I just wrote" … "ok, now let me take a picture of you" … "smile" … "now, let’s combine your picture with the note I scribbled" … "see how easy that was?!"
Not! How many such demos do you think a salesman will do before he stops telling prospects about the nifty feature?

More promising is RealEyes3D’s new Digitizer3 (“Digitizer cubed”) product, a camera phone document scanner
service for business users.

Update 7/3/05:

Samsung’s partner is indeed RealEyes3d, according to this press statement released the day following my post:

Realeyes3D, the pioneer in handwritten messaging and other embedded applications and content services for camera phones, today announced the world-premiere availability of handwritten messaging on Samsung’s SCH-S260 handset, released in Korea. This launch follows the signing of an extensive global agreement, under which Samsung has licensed Realeyes3D’s w-Postcard™ and Digitizer™ handwritten messaging applications for integration as standard features in its camera phones.

That’s great news for RealEyes3D. To appreciate the context of adding such features to MMS, The Feature published an article last year regarding the lack of success of WAP and MMS. According to the article:

"WAP and MMS failed to meet expectations because services were designed by … ‘default thinking,’ a clichéd and unquestioned mindset
that combines "a weak collection of axioms of design, broad market
visions, or rules of execution that aren’t clearly articulated. This
collection exists in the background, much like the assumption that
gravity exists ….

It is possible to create quite a complex MMS, one that includes not
only a picture but sound and text as well. This has clear value as a
gift. There could be a small study in the gift giving groups to see
how they would respond to photos as gifts…"

In other words, the innovative w-Postcard application from RealEyes3D adds a more compelling context to send photos by MMS. Admittedly, it is not touted as a killer application meant to boost MMS messages. Nevertheless, whether w-Postcard is compelling enough for people to use under current high MMS pricing by operators remains to be seen.

Full disclosure:

I interviewed with RealEyes3D in October 2004.

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