Camera memory card tags location info using Wi-Fi

Eye-Fi Explore, due out next month, taps into a database run by Skyhook Wireless. That company sends trucks up and down streets to scan for home wireless routers or commercial hotspots and record the unique identifying code and location of each.

The Eye-Fi card can sense the Wi-Fi access point that happens to be nearby, regardless of whether that access point is open or password-protected. The unique code for that access point gets matched with what's in the Skyhook database. When you take a photo, Eye-Fi automatically attaches data about the current location, as determined by Skyhook.

"Today, that's a very manual and time-consuming process," said Jef Holove, chief executive of Mountain View, Calif.-based Eye-Fi Inc. "We're saving people the time and the hassle."

Citing privacy and security of photographers, subjects and location owners -especially in the case of photos of kids or valuables -Holove said Eye-Fi tags the photos with just the city and state where they were shot -plus, when available, a neighborhood.

That could make Eye-Fi's approach less useful than the GPS-based "geotagging" products, which tag photos with latitude and longitude coordinates. Such precision lets you pinpoint photos on a digital map, even within a park.

Still, Eye-Fi could help boost geotagging, which remains limited to more tech-savvy or professional photographers. Without the aid of Eye-Fi or a GPS device, location information needs to be entered manually.

The $129 Eye-Fi Explore comes with 2 gigabytes of storage and works with any camera using SD memory cards.

Like previous Eye-Fi models, Explore can also automatically send photos over Wi-Fi from your camera to your computer or photo-sharing sites when within range.

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