Dial up ... and make your contribution to the big big picture

Anyone will be able to become a part of the big picture if a new application from the Hyperfactory develops the way the company's managing director would like.

Building on the development of TickerTXT, an application allowing text messages to be sent to a TV screen and displayed like a rolling stock ticker, the company has adapted its platform for picture messages with TickerPXT.

Imagine a sports event or quiz show where audience members can message in pictures to be displayed on a big screen - or to a TV audience of millions (with moderation of the pictures first, of course).

The TickerPXT application was developed in . Net and Flash standards, and the platform allows audio, video and text to be displayed together.

Hyperfactory's managing director, Geoffrey Handley, said there were inherent difficulties in building a system able to support various camera phone types.

"There are no coherent standard formats for handsets and their respective picture outputs," he said.

"Each of the handsets on the market have, for example, different aspect ratios and different file output types."

The Hyperfactory introduced TickerPXT at this year's Queenstown Winter Festival with Vodafone.

Photos taken around the event on PXT-capable GPRS handsets were transmitted to display on plasma screens. The system also works over CDMA networks.

Handley was working to have the application incorporated into concerts and awards presentations.

His ultimate vision is to have the technology used as conduit for sentiments to be expressed publicly by anyone with a PXT-capable phone.

"What I would like to see is a massive, live billboard in an urban area similar to Times Square or Piccadilly but have people sending their pxts and txts to it all day and night".

The Hyperfactory is up for two awards at next month's Telecommunications Users' Association presentation.

How to enter

Mobile application developers are invited to enter the Frontier transtasman competition being run by the Herald with Ericsson.

The competition seeks to find the best mobile applications from New Zealand and Australia.

There are prizes for winners - and the chance to pitch applications to potential investors.

Ericsson Frontier