WAP Pictogram Specification as Emoji Source

[Christoph Päper]

I just discovered the WAP Pictogram specification (WAP-213-WAPInterPic), last published in April 2001 and updated in November 2001.

- http://www.wapforum.org/what/technical.htm (requires OMA credentials)
- http://www.openmobilealliance.org/tech/affiliates/wap/wap-213-wapinterpic-20010406-a.pdf

It describes a way to reference locally stored graphics using the `pict` URL scheme in WML or XHTML:

    <img
     localsrc=“pict:///core/arrow/right”
          src=“http://www.pict.com/xx/rightArrow.wbmp”
          alt=“->”
     />
    
    <object data=“pict:///time/season/winter”>
      <object data=”pict:///weather/snow”>
        <img src=“http://www.pict.com/xx/snowman.wbmp”
             alt=“snowman”/>
      </object>
    </object>

Reading through section 7 Pictogram Set, it’s obvious that WAP pictograms have been unified with Japanese (i-mode) emojis upon their encoding in Unicode 6+. However, the mapping is not obvious in all cases and I think there are some pictograms that have been omitted / forgotten or could have better annotation, e.g.:

- /emotion/{trapped,tutting,shine,smell,pullFace,shakenHeart}
- /human/body/foot
- /map/{policeStation,spa,zoo}
- /sport/{sport,scuba}
- /time/event{anniversary,holiday,newYearsDay}

I can imagine a crudely equivalent Unicode emoji for almost all of them, but definitely not for Scuba Diving. I haven’t seen – or at least not recognized – a scuba gear, flipper, snorkel or diver in documentation of Japanese vendor sets.

Is there a mapping file available at the Unicode website that I’ve missed?

I haven’t found any reference or vendor-specific images, by the way, and if it wasn’t just used as an example domain anyway, pict.com seems now defunct.