The Tokyo-based company APPLIYA Inc. just published an innovative iPhone application called “Baby Cam”. This camera application helps you to get attention of your baby just when you want to take a picture. Before you hit the shutter you just have to press the “Smile button”. You can choose out of a range of 15 preinstalled sounds, like bells, toys, animals and familiar melodies like “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” or “Mary Had A Little Lamp”.

As the video on Appliya’s website (taken at a daycare center in Tokyo) shows, all babies reacted with interest to the sound and smiled into the camera.

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“Baby Cam” is available for 115Yen (1$) in the Japanese App Store but will soon be released in international markets.

Appliya Inc. is working together with Softbank, the only carrier currently selling the iPhone in the Japanese market. They developed a range of Japanese-style applications like “Katana“, a samurai sword application using the motion sensors or “Ghost Cam“, an app that automatically adds Japanese-horror style ghost images on random places in the photos you take with your iPhone.

While the App Stores are spilled over with applications from all over the world, due to the low iPhone radiation in Japan, Japanese applications are still very rare. Hopefully the efforts of Softbank to promote the iPhone in Japan bear fruits and we can see more innovative apps from Japan soon.