Ok, I admit to being a bit facetious with the subject line of this particular writeup. But I still think this is very cool. Thanks to MAKE Magazine, I'm now aware of an iPhone (and presumably also camera-inclusive iPad and iPod touch?) application called Resistor Photo ID, which "uses your iPhone's camera to help identify resistor values." After you snap a photo of the resistor in question, it then automatically zooms in to the resistor body. And after you match the various resistor bands to corresponding colors in rotating "wheels" below the image, the program will calculate and report the resistor value and tolerance to you.
I admit that when I first saw the MAKE Magazine blog post, I though that Nothing Labs' program automatically discerned the bands' tints. If so, it would be really "useful to anyone who is color blind." As is, the program is still notable in that it precludes the user from having to remember silly mnemonics and do manual calculations, particularly given that it's free. Nonetheless, I encourage developer Rich Olson to take the utility to the next level and turn it into a single-click value-and-tolerance discernment aid, wherein it will truly be an embedded vision case study. Heck, I'd even pay for it then!
