"FlashPoint Technology Inc., the creator of Digita, the industry's first standard (digital photography) operating system (OS), demonstrated the ability to wirelessly transmit digital images from a Digita-enabled camera to the Internet. The demonstration of this new wireless Internet imaging technology used a standard NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation) IC card and ISDN public telephones equipped with an infrared (IrDA) interface. The demonstration took place at a press conference in Tokyo.

"Digita Post, an in-camera software application running on the Kodak DC290, which implements the Digita OS, made the demonstration possible. It allowed a Digita-enabled camera that has a built-in infrared interface to transfer images, sound and text data over an ISDN public telephone without the need for cables, a terminal adapter (modem) or a PC. Digita Post technology will be able to work with standard modems and most infrared-ready cellular telephones."

That was enough to fire up our editor who put us on the track of the new technology forthwith.

Infrared public telephones? Pix zapped through your cell phone? Where have we been?

So we rang up FlashPoint and Russell Wilner, Sales Manager of Wireless Imaging for the company, who put us straight. A good thing, too, as both the press release and their Web site can leave the reader a bit confused.

What Digita Post 1.0 does, essentially, is allow you to post the pictures from your digital camera (so far only six models, but the rest are to come) instantly on the Web, using your cell phone. Their Web site describes it thusly: