I came across an interesting app in the App Store today that’s worth a look. The app is called RulerPhone and its premise is simple: it will let you take a picture with your iPhone and allow you to measure the distances and dimensions between objects in that picture.
Here’s the deal: you can download RulerPhone for $2.99 in the App Store if you want to measure distances of up to 12 feet or you can pick up RulerPhone Lite for free if you don’t need distances longer than 1.5 feet.
Once you start RulerPhone up, it explains how to use the app. In order to start measuring, you need to place an object about the size of a credit card in the picture you’re about to take in order to derive accurate measurements between the objects in the image. After that, you snap the picture and move to the next screen, which asks you to align a blue card that’s displayed so it lines up perfectly with the credit card in the picture. As soon as the two cards are aligned, you click “Measure” and a ruler is displayed, which you can move around and extend to measure the distance between objects in the picture or their length. The actual measurements are displayed above the image.
As long as you use a credit card and align the blue card over it perfectly, you shouldn’t have too much trouble measuring accurately with RulerPhone. That said, the measurements are more accurate the closer the credit card is to the center of the image and if you’re looking to make three-dimensional measurements, you’re out of luck — it only supports two-dimensions.
I used RulerPhone for about 20 minutes, measuring things all over the house to see how well it performed. Generally speaking, it did well and came within a few centimeters as long as I followed the instructions perfectly. When I didn’t, RulerPhone would be off by as much as three feet in some cases and proved useless when I wanted to measure the dimensions of less linear objects like a chair.
So why only 20 minutes? Once that time elapsed, so did the novelty. RulerPhone is neat to use for a while, but once you’ve measured almost everything in the room with varying success, it quickly becomes another app in your list that you probably won’t use often.
RulerPhone is an interesting idea with some utility, but I just don’t see any reason to spend $2.99 on this app. Try out the free version instead.
this is my dream.
So sad that the new iPod touch doesn’t have a camera. Wonder when someone will develop an add on camera for the touch?
cool app but not worth two bucks
Simple idea but one that generates money. Nice!
so i tested this a day ago and it’s ridiculous. as in bad. you have to hold the credit card next the item and then manipulate the picture to make it match something else and…at the end fo the day it would have been far easier to drive to the store and buy a tape measure than continue to try to figure it out.
Who doesn’t have tape measure?
Don doesn’t.
that’s not really the point of my comment
and yet it is a relevant question to this article – it begs the question: Do I NEED to use my iPhone for EVERYTHING, just because I CAN?
I’m not a hater, I’ve got a shiny black 3G like the rest of us. It is great at a lot of things. Measuring distances is not one of them.
or just know the length of the credit card and flip it end-over-end a bunch of times to measure the length.
I bet you could google the length of a credit card on your iPhone!
The iPhone is 4.1″, you can flip it instead
Off the top of my head, i believe it is 80×55mm (aka CR80)
Flipping a credit card end-over-end to measure a length of 10 feet doesn’t exactly appeal to me. Much rather show off the app.
Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you don’t NEED this app, just like you don’t need a pseudo-Koi pond or any of these oddball apps. I bought it because needed to measure something and I thought the idea was really cool. Who cares. It’s $3 which is actually cheaper than buying a measuring tape, and I didn’t have to leave the house and take the subway to overongested Home Depot.
The person above makes a good point. It seems kind of pointless but hey, if you don’t feel like buying tape measure, I guess it’s not bad to dish out $3 for.
yeah, except i know how to use a tape measure, and i couldn’t figure out how to use this.
Honestly, that’s kind of surprising to me.
me too.
not sure why I thought it was pretty simple?
why does it need a credit card? couldn’t it use something like business card? dimentions are pretty much the same….
finally i can use my iphone to measure my dick
I think the minimum measurement is 4 inches actually…so…
lol
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a nice iphone app, but it cost much…
I don’t know…I think it’s a pretty clever idea.
4 inch minimum that’s funny…. really they need to add some of these functionaliy to the ipod itouch it should have the camera & all the apps except for the phone…
what a load of shite. still keeps the techcrunch ass brains entertained,
This has to be ‘THE’ most interesting app have heard about in a long time!
We do have a lot of juvenile commenters around here though…