ViPR Allows You to Snap a Pic, and Instantly Get Info About the Photo Taken

by Jody Mitoma on April 19, 2008 at 5:13 am

Evolution Robotics’ ViPR software is to be released for the iPhone this June. ViPR will allow you to take a photograph of any movie cover, CD, book, magazine, or basically anything else you can imagine, which in turn sends it to a dedicated server, and e-mails you any information it found on the product that you took a photo of, using your iPhone. This all happens almost instantly, being as useful - or even more useful than an actual text search engine.

The amazing thing about this technology is, you don’t even have to take a photo of the product straight-on. In fact, you can take a photograph of a movie cover on an angle, and even have a pen and some lose change covering parts of the cover itself (you can reportedly cover up to 90% of the image - and STILL get the correct information sent to you!), and the server will still be able to acknowledge what you were trying to get information about - and will then, in turn, send you an e-mail right away.

Here are a couple shots of the technology reading certain parts of a photograph to detect exactly what it is an image of so that it can accurately send the correct information back to you:

Spot is all spotty, thanks to ViPR detection technology!

Evolution Robotics made it so that if you are taking a photograph of a CD cover, or even of a movie cover or magazine advertisement, you’ll be able to click on a dedicated link (which you will be e-mailed once the server gets the photograph you’ve taken), which will automatically open up the iTunes Store, allowing you to preview or download the songs which are related to the product you shot a photo of. You will also be able to watch any YouTube videos which relate to the product you photographed. Not only that, but you’ll also be sent a perfectly-straight image of the product you captured - even if the shot you captured was on an angle. Besides all of that, you will also be given an in depth description of the product itself, be it a cover of the amazing movie Freedom Writers, or a magazine ad forg the new Britney Spears album.

Have a peek at the clip below for a video demonstration of the software doing its duty. You won’t be disappointed:

As you can see, ViPR works fantastic, even with the demonstrator’s fingers covering parts of the photo of the Finding Nemo image.Keep on reading for a second video demonstration, and more information on ViPR for the iPhone!

Cameras are fast becoming standard equipment on wireless and mobile devices. Conservative estimates forecast that 1 in 4 cell phones sold this year will have a camera. And while snapping photographs is fun, there is an underlying opportunity for carriers, developers and publishers to develop more compelling, high-use applications for consumers.

Imagine:

You see an ad of your favorite band in a magazine and want to quickly download some of the new songs into your MP3 handset.

A new car drives by, and you want to know how much it costs.

You are wondering if that bottle of Merlot for sale would go well with what you are making for dinner.

If the video posted above wasn’t enough to spark your interest, I was able to find a second video demonstrating ViPR on the iPhone:

This is simply amazing. I can’t get over this phenomenal breakthrough in technology. Come June, the iPhone will be one of the most advanced pieces of technology you can fit in your pocket (as if it weren’t high up there already) - thanks to app designers and programmers such as Evolution Robotics.See here for a much more in-depth look at the ViPR technology, and how it’ll shape the way we search everything in the nearish future. (Lucky for Japan, they’re already using this technology, which is available on certain cellular devices in their country, as we speak).

It’s too bad all we can do is wait, because waiting truly sucks - be it waiting in line to get on that intense roller coaster your friend was telling you about, or waiting for one of the most impressive applications being released for the iPhone to date.

(Source: Gizmodo)

One Response to “ViPR Allows You to Snap a Pic, and Instantly Get Info About the Photo Taken”

“Eye-Phone” Image Recognition System Coming? | Touch Podium said:

May 1st, 2008 at 11:26 am

[...] — especially down yon Android-way with the Enkin demo. We have also seen and reported on ViPR, a fascinating new way to use your iPhone’s camera for image recognition in order to look up [...]