Picture this: you point your phone at a restaurant and it brings up reviews and pricing, you point it at a hotel and find out whether there are any vacancies. Almost everything you point at becomes a hyperlink from itself to the internet.
At Nokia’s The Way We Live Next conference held in Finland yesterday the mobile company demonstrated how it is possible to do this armed with a handset that has a camera and is web-enabled.
Earlier this year Nokia acquired small Silicon Valley company PIXTO, developer of Point&Click technology that makes it possible through global positioning satellite and image recognition to lock on to and identify a landmark before going on to find relevant online information.
Nokia called this technology ‘a content provider’s dream’.
“The benefits offered to content providers and developers by Point&Find are great because they capitalise on the immediacy of the situation. Bored on a train, a traveller sees a photo of a beautiful island in an advertising poster. Later, once home, the image is already forgotten.
“But ‘Point&Find’ can instantly link our traveler, and potential visitor, with information about the destination, from tourist notes to special offers on flights, accommodation and excursions.”
Depending on how advanced the image recognition is, it could be a new way for a real life stalker to get a foothold on your online movements.
By Marie Boran
