D2C and Bandai Networks last week announced the commencement of their “Camera Search” service.

The service allows consumers to search for information and buy items such as CDs and mail order goods simply by taking a picture of the item in question and sending it to a server employing image recognition technology called ViPR developed by American firm EvolutionRobotics. For example, the consumer can take a picture of a CD jacket and receive artist news and buy the CD directly on their phone from retailers such as Amazon and Tower Records. The service will initially support searches for five types of images – CD jackets, wine labels, mail order catalogues, magazines and adverts.

The “Camera Search” application will also come pre-installed on DoCoMo’s N902iS – one of the new handsets in the operator’s summer collection revealed last week.

# posted by Jan Kuczynski @ 8:55 am