ER Mobile Visual Search Engine For iPhone

Evolution Robotics Inc. in companionship with Bandai Networks Co. Ltd announced the ER Search, mobile visual search engine, on new line of camera phones (Spring 2008).

Evolution Robotics focuses much on visualization because of the potential for future product developments. Their goal is to solve a problem in realistic settings by total visual interaction between a human being and a machine. Camera technologies are developing increasingly due to widespread application of web cameras, digital cams and cell-phone cams.

The launch of ER search is estimated the increase in mobile visual search market services up to $24 Billion by 2013 (ABI research) and this will enable the consumers in Japan to take pictures of surrounding objects and do on-line searches. Its download will be available for any KDDI customer with a previous AU camera phone.

ER Search works like using a traditional search engine, but with no typing any text through complicated menus. Instead of it, users snap a picture of any object and are immediately provided with relevant content. For instance, if you are looking for wine in a store, you can photograph wine label and get recommendations and experts reviews on it. So as soon as you see something you are interested in, just snap a picture and see all services and information on the spot. As Satoshi Oshita, CEO of Bandai Networks, said – “the search process is far easier and immediate than anything that has been available before.”

ER Search has the ViPR technology, which supports user-generated content to take new images, videos or places and tag them with links and content to expand the database. World-wide visual database will be created by showing the content results of other users who take similar pictures. A demonstration of visual search technology by Evolution Robotics on Apple’s iPhone can be viewed at Youtube.

ViPR can learn new objects and images (cover art on a music CD), without any special encoding. Also ViPR performs well on most cameras used on low cost mobile phones today.

Database already indexes over 150,000 music CD covers, as well as other mobile applications providing info and links. Even streaming video or images from TV are supported.

Share This

iPhone + Skateboarding = ?

We’ve spoken a lot about weird iPhone accessories, iPhone fakes and all other topics. But so far I’ve never written a post (neither thought I) about implying the iPhone theme to other than wireless devices. What am I talking about? About a year ago I was asked to write a post about furniture pieces that are made in car-part shapes. These furniture items come as custom ones, so they cost much more than ordinary ones. Moreover, it has been indicated that all the objects that have car-like shapes sell better and faster.

So what conclusion did I arrive at? Well, the iPhone is an incredible hit out there. People seem to go absolutely crazy about it, especially with the forthcoming release of the 3G iPhone. I though that if the iPhone theme is applied to any kind of device it can become more popular with the customers.

In order to prove my hypothesis I ran a Google search. Do you want to know what I found? In fact, there were quite a number of things that borrowed iPhone’s appearance or shape, or even functions, but there was one that attracted my attention incredibly:

iPhone skateboarding deck

I just couldn’t believe that two completely incompatible things like a deck for a skateboard and an iPhone could be combined. But on seconds thought I thought that the deck looked impressively awesome. It is black, it is an iPhone-related. What else does a deck need? =)

The deck has been created by the company Girl Biebel and it costs $45.99. it is an average price for this sort of product.

After reading and writing about my wonderful discovery I decided to find out how people treat the looks of the new deck. So that’s what I’ve found:

I like to flip through my brother’s catalogs sometimes too. A lot of the decks have great designs!
thats a sweet deck, i love girl skateboards
yes, people get really creative with those things! the one above is great. i used to live across from someone who made custom longboards which were hand carved as well as painted/sprayed. so cool.
clever!

You see that people love the deck? Isn’t that a reasonable proof to the fact that all (may be not all but the overwhelming majority) of iPhone-like devices are appreciated by the audience?

Downloads for iPhone: 8 Steps of iPhone Personalization

Share This

Downloads for iPhone: 8 Steps of iPhone Personalization

The ancient proverb says: Old habits die hard. Once you had your old-school mobile phone. And you did your best to personalize it. Now you are an owner of iPhone. BUT it is possible to personalize any kind of device (regardless if it is a car or you PC monitor). All the things are personalizible. The same with the iPhone. There are things (and they are available to everyone) that can make you favorite phone stand out in a crowd.

So I decided to make up a list of 8 steps you can make to personalize your iPhone:

1. Ringtones

Ringtones are the most popular way of personalizing of any phone, aren’t they? The same with iPhone: you can find hundreds of web-services that offer ringtone downloads.

2. Wallpaper / screen savers

It is a common knowledge that images and sounds are the best ways of personalizing any kind of device. As the iPhone has a lot of inbuilt memory you can download dozens of images including your photos etc. Placing one of these images as wallpaper or a screensaver will make you device distinct.

3. Videos

Video is one of the priorities of the modern mobile industry. There are hundreds of free and paid video services you can subscribe to. Using your iPhone you can watch streaming videos and download your favorite films. Isn’t that a great way of personalizing the iPhone?

4. Games

You can tell a lot about a person by just looking through the list of games on his/her iPhone. Whether he is an adventure hunter or car enthusiast or whatever.

5. VoIP

VoIP feature is a great way to economize calling other people. If one can see the advantages of combining voice, data and images on his/her iPhone, the person can be regarded as a reasonable one.

6. SMS messages

The way you message people can tell a lot about you. By creating your own style of making up messages can become your second business card.

7. Music

iPhone storage memory allows you to save hundreds of tracks. And I stick to the idea that the playlist of a person can tell you much more than the games he plays or the images he downloads. The music the person listens to illustrates his inner world and his current mood. It is a great way of personalizing your iPhone, isn’t it?

8. Accessories

And the last but not the least way to personalize your iPhone is applying this or that accessory to it. You can use weird accessories as well as the traditional ones (as, for instance, cases). The way your iPhone’s exterior looks like is a powerful way to make it different from others.

iPhone Download: How to Choose the Best Sites?

Share This

iPhone Download: How to Choose the Best Sites?

If you are a lucky owner of an iPhone (as I definitely am) you have the opportunity to listen to dozens of CDs and watch hundreds of movies. Moreover, you can save the valuable space on the hard drive of your computer by saving the media on the iPhone. Another option is watch the favorite movies and TV shows life.

But before doing all these amazing things you have to find credible and reliable sources for iPhone downloads. What does that mean? Basically, it means finding the sites that will supply you with the required data and which are affordable for you.

Pay attention to the prices

Some web-pages for iPhone charge money per song (or per movie etc.) At first, the number may seem small enough to buy the media you like, but if try summing them up, you will find out that all the files you like cost a fortune. It is even more true for long TV shows or movies, because usually they are much more costly than short songs.

So you seen that if you plan to use the site often it is stupid to choose the one that charged per downloaded item. Instead of it, look for a site with a flat-rate charge (it can be a weekly, monthly, yearly etc. fee). But in the long run the best offer is the lifetime fee, because it will definitely help you save money.

How do I Choose?

If you plan to download the content frequently and in large quantities, you’d better look for a site with a lifetime fee and unlimited access to downloads. It means that you are not overcharged if you want to download content all round the clock 7 days a week.

You should stop your choice on the site with a user-friendly interface. How to decide whether the site has one? It should possess a free-trial feature. You don’t need a service that is basically complicated to use, do you? Why find a service where you will spend the majority of your time trying to find out how it works instead of downloading the content?

Pay attention to such features as Tech support and customer service. If the service has neither you might be left with unsolved problem totally alone. These must be a phone number where you can call in case anything goes wrong. Moreover, take into consideration the speed of downloading. If it is not high enough, you don’t want to wait for a song to download for a week, do you?

A few days ago I published a list of reliable iPhone sources. You can check it up here.

Here are my basic tips for choosing a download source for your iPhone. May be you have any additional suggestions?

iPhone Firmware 2.0 Beta review: What’s new

Share This

CoverScout For Collecting iTunes

Do you remember Cover Flow for iTunes first introduced, when lots of people were really excited to browse through their music and movies by beautiful covers, like viewing stands of CDs at a music store? But users of Cover Flow faced very few album covers associated with the music library and that case made it almost useless. The desire was so initial that something new and more expanded has to be introduced.

CoverScout is a new program available, which will search several online databases to track down cover art for you and to get back that feeling of choosing CDs at a music store. Though you will have to register after a trial period (for money of course), it fills in the blanks of your music library.

Like other programs of this type, CoverScout searches the Amazon.com database for matches, and , what is more, it searches Google images too and can perform multiple searches simultaneously. Add any covered tune with just one click!

It can also seek out art for singles and compilations with its advanced search system, so you’re not limited to just the main stream albums. And if CoverScout can’t find what you’re looking for, don’t be frustrated, because now you can use it to shoot pictures of your CD cover with a webcam to fill the art in manually, so every album can be provided with cover.

CoverScout supports:

iTunes
iPhone
iPod Touch
even the Apple TV

Mac OS X 10.3.9, iTunes 6.0.2 or newer are required to use it.

Cover Flow was great, but it represented from your library. With CoverScout, your iTunes music library will be full enough with covers you want and your visual perception will be satisfied. Flip through your albums the way Cover Flow should be used.

CoverScout 2.3.7 is avaliable for downloading

Share This