A camera phone is a mobile phone which has a camera built-in. Typically the receiving device must have a web browser with messaging or must be capable of decoding and displaying MMS information, as opposed to an ordinary telephone for example. The picture and video are usually delivered after the message recipient requests they be sent in response to a notification of a picture or video message received at a server. This is designed to manage bandwidth and device resources and be "well behaved" to others.

The first wireless picturephone prototype known as intellect, developed in 1993 by inventor Daniel A. Henderson[Repository_Details.aspx?rep_id=1594" target="_blank">http://invention.smithsonian.org/resources/MIND_Repository_Details.aspx?rep_id=1594], was received by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in 2007[http://americanhistory.si.edu/news/pressrelease.cfm?key=29&newskey=611]. This pioneering system and device was designed to receive pictures and video data sent from a message originator to a message center for transmission and display on a wireless device such as a cellular telephone http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=6&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=henderson-daniel-a.INNM.&OS=in/henderson-daniel-a&RS=IN/henderson-daniel-a. However the integration of the cellular phone, the digital camera and a wireless internet infrastructure would take a few more years.

There have been over the years many video phones and cameras that include communications technologies. None of them had focused on the integration to the wireless Internet, allowing to share media instantly with anyone anywhere. Such experiments include for example in 1995 a device that was known as the AppleVideophone/PDAhttp://www.applegazette.com/mac/httpwwwapplegazettecomwp-adminpostphpactioneditpost272/. There were several digital cameras with cellular phone transmission capability shown by companies such as _Kodak, Olympus in the early 90sblank">http://www-users.mat.uni.torun.pl/~olka/historia.htmlThere was also a digital camera with cellular phone designed by Shosaku Kawashima of Canon in Japan in May 1997 http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN%2FD405457.

On June 11th 1997, _Philippe Kahn instantly shared the first pictures with several thousand recipients from the maternity ward where his daughter Sophie was born. For the first time a sharing infrastructure and an integrated cell-phone/camera combo augured the birth of instant visual communications.

In Japan, two competing projects were run by Sharp and Kyocera in 1997. Both had cell phones with integrated cameras. However, the Kyocera system was designed as a peer-to-peer video-phone as opposed to the Sharp project which was initially focused on sharing instant pictures. That was made possible when the Sharp devices was coupled to the Sha-mail infrastructure designed in collaboration with American technologist, Kahn. The Kyocera team was led by Mr. Kazumi Saburi id=0&page_id=1391889423&page_url=%2f%2fwww.tomshardware.co.uk%2fcolumn%2f20051118%2findex.html&page_last_updated=1%2f8%2f2006+5%3a17%3a35+PM&firstName=Kazumi&lastName=Saburi" target="_blank">http://cache.zoominfo.com/CachedPage/?archive_id=0&page_id=1391889423&page_url=%2f%2fwww.tomshardware.co.uk%2fcolumn%2f20051118%2findex.html&page_last_updated=1%2f8%2f2006+5%3a17%3a35+PM&firstName=Kazumi&lastName=Saburihttp://en.kyocera.de/kyocera_n/english/culture/museum_science.html

The first commercial camera phone complete with infrastructure was the J-SH04, made by Sharp Corporation, had an integrated _CCD sensor, with the Sha-Mail (Picture-Mail in Japanese) infrastructure developed in collaboration with Kahn's LightSurf venture, and marketed by J-Phone in Japan today owned by Softbank. The first commercial deployment in North America of camera phones was in 2002. The Sprint wireless carriers deployed over 1 million camera phone manufactured by Sanyo and launched by the PictureMail infrastructure (Sha-Mail in English) developed and managed by LightSurf.

Like most complex technology-based systems, there are several patents and technologies relevant to aspects of the camera phone. The advent of the CMOS sensor is an enabling technology for mass production.

Camera phones share pictures instantly and automatically via a sharing infrastructure integrated with the carrier network. They do not use connecting cables or removable media to transfer pictures. Personal computer intervention is not necessary. Some camera phones use CMOS image sensors, due largely to reduced power consumption compared to CCD type cameras, which are also used. The lower power consumption prevents the camera from quickly depleting the phone's battery. Images are usually saved in the JPEG file format, and the wireless infrastructure manages the sharing. The sharing infrastructure is critical and explains the early successes of J-Phone and DoCoMo in Japan as well as Sprint and other carriers in the United States and the widespread success worldwide.

Major manufacturers include Sharp, Nokia, Sanyo, Samsung, Motorola, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, and LG Electronics.. The resolution is typically in the megapixel range.