Koko-memo (Here-it-is) is a a prototype handheld map annotation system that allow users of the system annotate maps close to the location of the users. It's done by Tomoko Imai, Naoki Sakakibara and Chika Sekine (UDIT Ltd.) + Hoshino Takeshi (Design Center, Hitachi Ltd.)
The hardware is a commercially available mobile phone with 2.2 inch liquid crystal display, a camera, and a global positioning system (GPS) receiver to allocate the location of the mobile phone. It weighs 125g and can be controlled with one hand. We developed Koko-memo software for the mobile phone and it allows users to obtain appropriate maps for the usersf location and paste photographs and comments on the maps. Users who are registered to a Koko-memo server can obtain the annotated maps and can add further information to the maps. Firstly, users capture images using the camera of the mobile phone and attach them to e-mails together with comments and location information that are detected by the GPS system. Then, they send the e-mail to the Koko-memo server. The server processes the messages and updates the information on the Koko-memo server. Then the users are able to watch maps with the latest annotations by accessing web pages with the URL of the Koko-memo server. Since each annotation data has a date, users can evaluate reliability of information based on the date information and the server can delete outdated information.
