Camera Phone-based Mobile Search

‘Search by Camera! ER Search’ is a mobile phone service based on image recognition technology and i-Appli, enabling the users of built-in camera phones to purchase products and get product information by making use of mobile phone’s camera. When the user takes pictures of wine labels, shopping catalogues, CD covers, etc., and sends the images to the server, it compares the images with pre-installed data and gives the user various information on the product.

Search by Camera! ER Search uses Evolution Robotics’ ViPR (visual pattern recognition) technology developed for mobile phones by Bandai Networks in Japan.

As of November, 2006 products by Amazon Japan, Kadogawa Cross Media, Kadogawa Degics, Senshukai, Tower Records, Tsutaya Online, Dinos, Nissen, and Media Works have been available for the service in Japan. The searchable product categories are expected to increase in the near future.