php mobile signature in input field

[ckling]

I know this is a long shot but I have a website form that submits just like you would filling a contact form to an email address. A client wants me to customize the form so when using a touchscreen phone, someone can not only fill in the form, but also sign a designated box with a signature. I'm not sure if this is even possible since the input field would have to somehow capture the signature as an image in order to send it through an email.

I'd like to do it through a php web browser but if that's not an option and there's a choice to download software on a mobile phone, I'll take that option too :)

Any help or idea's would be great!

[SyCo]

Oh dear, i don't think you client understands the interwebs or pooters at all. I don't envy you.

I'm guessing this is an early project for you and thus are eager to please, but difficult as it can be you have to take control. Especially when you client is a bit of a numbnuts as i imagine the case is here. If you are 90% sure there living in la la land when they request something just say it can't be done. THen later if you find out if can be done you look lik a star, rather than have the 'you said you could' thrown back at you later. My mentor said everything was impossible but he'd do it after lunch :)

There's no way to submit a touchscreen input in PHP or HTML. You might have the facility of saving the input as an image and attaching it to form but i doubt it. Also kind of pointless.
Record the IP of the person submitting the from and ask for a digital signature eg initial, date of birth place of birth etc, something personal.

Sorry if I sound a bit pissed off but you're bring up horrible memories of idiots in marketing departments. :)

[ckling]

Thanks for the reply Synco,
I did tell the client I will research it but not sure if it can be done. Most of our clients are orthopedic groups and they rely heavily on these windows mobile phones. I can understand where my client is coming from but most of them are very technical illiterate.

To put it in a better perspective, right now they sit in surgery rooms and use hard copies of order forms for implants that they have signed when a surgeon needs something. Their wanting it more automated and all their phones have data where they can browse the internet so this would seem the best route compared to each person having to download software to there phones.

Alas, your probably right and this may have to go a software route to happen rather then the web.

[SyCo]

You would have to have them consider the legality of not using a hard copy. It's easy to cut and paste a signature from one doc to another.

Consider what a signature actually is. It's a unique identify of what person confirmed what process. The same can be achieved digitally using unique pass codes. Each doctor could be issued a pass code and the digital form signed with that. You would have to use a secure connection and password input type but it would achieve the same end. You'd have to check that legislation regarding the signing of legal documents would allow for that though. You could take the request to the hospital/hospice board and explain why it's a good idea and why it's even more secure than a hand written signature (which is easy to forge)

I think a good analogy about internet security is people still don't trust purchasing online, but are happy to hand their card to a stranger in a restaurant who walks away or leave it behind the bar to cover a tab. I'd put my faith in 128bit secure connection to an establish financial house any day.

So investigate secure connections (min 128) and security certificates and presnt what you find to you client.

Oh, and I work on the theory that all clients are technically illiterate, and most are lol.