I had an idea and hoped someone would know if it were possible TO even develop it, let alone if someone would undertake the feat even if we could do this.

A lot of people have cellphones. A lot of people have 770's. And some have both. Now, I am fairly certain (but not totally) that you can't be online with your Data-enabled phone AND have it in camera mode at the same time. If so, great, that could help. So we would need another internet source that wasn't bluetooth: ie, the Wi-Fi.

So if we could use the Wi-Fi as our base connection and then create a bluetooth connection to our phone (in Camera mode), then it makes a certain delicious thought that we might be able to use our pre-existing cameras as webcams. All the parameters needed are here, if so.

The 770 can only have 1 Bluetooth connection at one time, I believe that's why Maemo Mapper cannot both use a GPS signal from a bluetooth GPS nearby and simultaenously use the Bluetooth Cellphone to download the maps at the same time. Most users are reporting this bug in the Maemo Mapper forum, can't do both at the same time. It can only be one thing or the other but not both, unless the Dev for Maemo Mapper programs the software to first acquire a mapping lock on the GPS, then drop the GPS and grab the Phone and download the needed maps, then drop the Phone and switch back to the GPS and acquire the signal, rinsing and repeating as needed.

So... for this idea, the 770 would need to use the Wi-Fi as it's internet connection, leaving the 1 bluetooth connection for the phone. Then you turn your phone on, in camera mode, and somehow (this is the part I'm not sure about) a Dev could develop a client to grab the images in Real-time from the phone and stream them into Gaim to be used as a webcam! Free webcam via already-existing camera phone technologies.

Since many phones are so proprietary, and locked by the mobile carriers, and other messed up restrictions, I doubt very few phones would be accessible this way, if any. But it's a clever idea, and I wanted at least to propose it for what it's worth and hope someone tech-minded would know the answers to these questions.

Thanks for your time.

I thought this had been proved wrong repeatedly by gnuite himself and other users. Did I misunderstand ?

I hope I am the one that misunderstands, in this case, so if you would find a link for me to read about that, I would sincerely appreciate it.

I haven't yet seen that limitation debunked, and it is in the user manual, but maybe Nokia doesn't know what they're talking about, heh....

Please provide a link, will you?

Thanks.

Since you asked, how about this?

You didn't look for a follow-up to your post an hour later?

I don't think any people having problems with downloading maps are suffering from bluetooth problems - it's something else.

Brad.

Ooops.

Yeah, ummm..... yeah.

Regardless, I think you've got a great idea. Why not use your phone? I suspect it won't work because you'll need to use the correct bluetooth profile for video (and I'd bet there isn't anything on the market that supports it). So, even though you could upgrade the 770 to support the correct profile, the phone won't know it.

While I love bluetooth, it seems more frustrating than anything else.

Brad.

It is very possible to do that, all you have to do is redirect the phone IO to the N770. Sounds pretty easy hah, but then you have to consider that most if not all phone manufacturers use proprietary and different OS and interface protocols. And different lines of phones by the same manufacturer use different software. In order to accomplish what you want; a new OS needs to be written for the phone that will include the new IO and new user interface.

there is an open source app for communicating with a sonyericsson phone
through bt. written originally for win. i cannot recall the name but it definitely allows using the phone as distant photo machine. so, porting a part of the sw for the 770 would allow us downloading static photos made regularily (maybe every 5 sec). i'll try to find the link for that SW. m

found it: http://fma.sourceforge.net/
I was amazed how much intelligent this sw was.
m.

It may be a moot post now since it appears the N770 2nd Gen will have a webcam anyway... who'd want to mess with this knowing that?

Thanks for everyone's feedback, but I think this idea just died.

So hey, why don't you all find one of my other ideas and put your helpful thoughts to work with me, huh?

Later.