photo2search
Latest
Search By Camera! delivers product data from cellphone pics
Much like the Photo2Search project being developed by Microsoft Research Asia, a new cameraphone-based image recognition service called Search By Camera! is promising to help consumers acquire info on products by simply snapping a picture while shopping. Developed by Bandai Networks and D2 Communications, using technology from Evolution Robotics (which is also at the core of a similar service launched earlier this year, called Mobot Mobile Visual Search, as well as having been recently licensed by Robosapien manufacturer WowWee Robotics), Search By Camera! will currently only work for the handful of folks who happen to have imported a DoCoMo FOMA N902iS phone into the US. Further degrading its utility is the fact that Bandai and D2C must get permission for each and every product they want to include in their database, which has so far only come from a scant ten companies. Still, even if this particular initiative doesn't take off, it's pretty clear that image recognition will play a leading role in the future of mobile search, with many handsets already possessing the proper tools that make such a service feasible.
Microsoft's Photo2Search for cameraphone queries
In one of the most ambitious projects to date for associating real-world objects with digital information about them, a team from Microsoft Research Asia is in the final stages of developing a platform for photo-based searches. Rather straightforwardly called Photo2Search, the technology was developed against the backdrop of a growing cameraphone market, whose widespread adoption is bringing portable computing to the masses but whose limited input options continue to deliver a frustrating search experience. Project leader Xing Xie came up with the idea for a database that could be queried via texted or emailed phone pics in late 2004, but at the time both machine-based photo identification and computer-vision algorithms were too slow and rudimentary to suit their needs. Over a year of work has refined the technology to make it faster, but more importantly, relevant -- unlike older software, Xie's version is now able to discern features that allow it to match specific objects and not just those which share similar characteristics. Unfortunately there are no immediate plans for rolling out this technology to consumers (it's still not quite ready for primetime, apparently), but since most of today's phones produce photos that are little more than a pixelated mess, we're probably not quite ready either.[Via picturephoning and MocoNews]
