Say cheese--and hello.

THE camera phones are watching--and there's nowhere to hide.

The latest craze in cell phone gadgetry has a miniature digital camera embedded into a cell phone. With a quick snap and a few taps on the phone's keypad, a photo can be taken and emailed within seconds (even tough the picture quality is considerably worse than the average digital camera).

Among the more novel applications: The U.S. Army Recruiting Battalion is examining, by phone, the tattoos of potential California recruits. In the past, whenever a new recruit showed up in outlying areas like Bakersfield or Fresno with a questionable tattoo, he was required to drive to the Los Angeles headquarters to be examined before enlisting. But the camera phones that the Army is testing would change all that.

"They can just snap a picture with their phone and send it to L.A. to get approval," said Stephanie Vinge-Walsh, a spokeswoman for Sprint Corp., whose phones the Army is testing.

Tattoos, of course, are only part of the picture. Earlier this month, a teenage boy in New Jersey used his phone to take photos of a man trying to lure him into his car, providing evidence that led to the alleged assailant's arrest. Police used the photos to make out the alleged kidnapper's license plate number in a shot taken as the man sped away in his car.

By some estimates, 4 million camera phones will be in use in the United States by the end of next year.