Canon, Epson and HP have formed the Mobile Imaging and Printing Consortium (MIPC) to develop standards to provide cellphone users with the option of printing images directly from a mobile phone.
Ashley Botha, Canon product manager, says the consortium forms a "marriage" between the printing and cellular worlds. He says MIPC will work to extend the PictBridge standard used in digital cameras and printers to mobile phones.
"PictBridge was an alliance developed originally by Canon, HP, Epson, Sony, Fuji Film and Olympus. It allows compliant digital cameras to print directly from a compliant printer. The consortium, along with mobile phone operators, will work together to extend the standard to allow users to print photographs directly from their cellphones."
The user will be able to print by plugging the phone into the printer, using Bluetooth to connect to the printer, or by saving the picture to a memory card and inserting it into the printer, he says.
"Cellphones will most likely be produced with the software. The user will then be able to take pictures with the cellphone and specify the details of the desired picture before sending it via one of the three mediums to the printer."
Botha does not expect cellphones with the new standard to come out before early 2005.
Share
