Hyperlinking the World

David Pescovitz 1:02 am Thu Jan 13, 2005

My latest article for TheFeature is an interview with Hartmut Neven, a machine vision researcher who is leveraging the ubiquity of cameraphones to bring biometrics to the mobile masses and hyperlink the world through a system best described as "a visual Google.

TheFeature: What do you mean by "visual Google"?

Neven: You take a picture of something, send it to our servers, and we either provide you with more information or link you to the place that will. Let's say you're standing in front of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. You take a snapshot with your cameraphone and instantly receive an audio-visual narrative about the painting. Then you step out of the Louvre and see a cafe. Should you go in? Take a shot from the other side of the street and a restaurant guide will appear on your phone. You sit down inside, but perhaps your French is a little rusty. You take a picture of the menu and a dictionary comes up to translate. There is a huge variety of people in these kinds of situations, from stamp collectors, to people who want to check their skin melanoma, to police officers who need to identify the person in front of them.

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