10 things you can do with your smartphone camera besides taking selfies

When was the last time you used your phone’s camera for anything other than taking a selfie?

The popularity of apps such as Instagram prove most people use their phone camera's only to take selfies. However, there are many more uses.

Your phone's camera is like a Swiss army knife; has much more potential than you think!

Here's a list of ten things you can do to take full advantage of your phone's camera:

1. Solve math problems

PHOTO: PHOTOMATH INC.

Do you need help with math homework, or are you having difficulty teaching to your child? Let the Photomath app be your saviour! Simply take a photo of the equation you want solved and let the app do the rest. It will analyse the question and give you a step-by-step working of the answer.



2. Know everything



Here's something for those who have a high level of curiosity. The Google Goggles app gives you information about almost anything. Just take a picture of the object and the app will give you all the information there is to know about it. You can even use it to cheat on Sudoku.

3. Find out your exact measurements

PHOTO: BIT BODY INC.

The MTailor app uses you phones camera and analyses your body's images to give you your exact measurements. The developers claim the app is 20 per cent more accurate than your average tailor.

BodyRecog is another app that measures your body and gives you health tips and recommendations based on the data.

4. Play a game

PHOTO: REUTERS

Augmented reality games are on the rise. The recently launched Pokemon Go has achieved record breaking success in the gaming world. The game uses your camera to make an impression that you are hunting for Pokémon in the real world.

Ingress is another augmented-reality game, which has already been downloaded over 8 million times!

Zombies Everywhere! is another one that lets you battle zombies in your neighborhood.



5.Get rid of all those business cards

PHOTO: EVERNOTE

Is your wallet about to burst because of all those business cards? Now you can get rid of them all. Install a scanner app that uses your phones camera to scan and analyse the details on the card and store it on your phone. If you’re an iOS user, Evernote Scannable is the best option. You can use CamScanner if you have an Android device.

6. Know more about stars

PHOTO: SKY MAP DEVS

The amazing app, SkyMap lets you use your smartphone's camera to make sense of stars and constellations. All you need to do is point your phones camera at the sky, or to a particular star. It even works in the day to show the position of stars that you can’t see. The app is available on both iOS and Android.

7. Be safe in an emergency

This is simple trick that can literally save your life. Note down your medical details such as, your blood group, allergies and details of who to contact in case of an emergency; take a picture of the information and make it your lock screen. In case the need arises, people can use this information to help you.



8. Save your neck

PHOTO: TITAN88

This app helps you correct your posture. The app Text Neck Indicator LITE uses your camera to watch your head movements and alerts you when you're slouching.

9. Easy way to give your Wi-Fi info

PHOTO: AFP

Nowadays when guests visit your house, the first thing they ask is your Wi-Fi password. Given the fact people tend to use all sorts of characters and symbols to make their passwords unique and difficult to crack, it becomes really difficult to remember them. There’s an easy solution for this, just write down your Wi-Fi user name and password and take a picture. Now every time someone asks you for your password, simply show them the photo.

10. Get help after a robbery

In a city like Karachi, it is common get your pocket picked or your car/bike get stolen from parking lot. Take photos of all of your credit cards, your car's license plate and your car's documents. Now, if your wallet or car is stolen, you'll have all the information you need to report it to the credit card company or police.

And to keep this information away from the reach of scammers, store these photos in a locker app like Folder Lock or AppLock.

This article originally appeared on CNET.

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