Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Vidfest 08: CellMap

Getting around without bulky paper maps, or the Internet.

Aaron Hilton, developer behind CellMap recently won the award for Best Mobile Application at the 2008 PopVox Awards during last week's Vancouver International Digital Festival. The convenient little cellphone application may not seem all that useful at first glance, but when considering the practical usage without the availability of an internet connection, CellMap becomes a logical tool.

During the award show gala, Hilton had a chance to give me a quick demonstration of CellMap, by transferring the map of Vidfest from his mobile phone to mine using Bluetooth connectivity. Though my phone is an older Motorola L2 Slvr, I was able to load the Java application with no problem, with entire Vidfest package taking up only 191k in data. A map reminiscent of google maps appeared on my screen, which was controlled with the phone's d-pad, though the package also featured a directory of important locations such as Washrooms, to Bank Machines, Parking, Restaurants, and Museums, it also had important event listings from the Vidfest agenda. There is also the ability to zoom-in and out of the map which helps for smaller screens, but button-input was different for older phone models, which Hilton hopes to make a note of in the future. Being that Vidfest took place on Granville Island, a major tourist destination, the map featured all the important locations that tourists would need to know, without carrying a folding paper map, or tourist guide.

CellMap would definitely be useful at theme parks, malls, and festivals where locations are spread over a wide area, wireless internet is unavailable, and where finding or carrying a traditional map becomes difficult. Theme park, or festival staff could simply transfer the map and other relevant information to your cellphone. It should be interesting to see where this takes off. Apple iPhones?

Read more about Custom CellMap here.

Related: PopVox - CellMap, PopVox - Local Gaming Gets Recognized, Vidfest 08 Summary

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