Search technology comes to the camera phone

What do MP3s have in common with dairy?

Milk marketing.

By early next year, cartons of milk sold by a European dairy manufacturer will have images of CD art printed on them. Accompanying each image will be a message urging people to take a picture of the art with a cell phone camera. Then, if the cell phone photographer sends the snapshot to a database operated by a marketing outfit, a free song will be sent to the phone from the band’s sponsoring record label.

In the United States, people will also be able to use their cell phones to take a picture of a movie billboard, and then send the image to a special database that returns a film trailer, locates a theater showing the movie advertised on the billboard or allows the user to buy tickets to the movie.

It’s all part of what several upstart companies have dubbed "mobile visual search"–technology promoted as an easier, more efficient way to get information on the go, without having to type on a tiny keypad.

By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

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