Here's another good news to put good use of your expensive mobile phone's high-res camera, caught this one from BetaNews via Switched:A new search service called Thrrum is available for Sprint Wireless users; which claims to be able to retrieve information about anything they can take a picture of.
First introduced publicly last month, 23half's search technology was demonstrated in the "nThrum" technology demonstrator in 2005. 23half now offers one of the first services that mixes images to capture the physical world with a way to gain relevant information via text messages.
After users send a photo to m@thrrum.com, the Thrrum MMS Search will send search results back to their phone that pertain to what's in the picture, especially if that picture contains something textual. 23half also designed the service so users can take pictures of book covers, product labels, printed material, and train schedules; the system can respond with extended information about what it finds.
For example, it's possible to capture an image of a music CD or DVD and send it to the service to receive product reviews and perhaps pricing and availability elsewhere.
The company also offers a Visual Browser that can be downloaded to a mobile phone so users can capture images and get results without having to send a text message to the Thrrum MMS service. Thrrum MMS Search is in beta, and available to Sprint Nextel subscribers for free (although the Visual Browser does cost $5.99 for 12 months access). Pricing information for the service's final release has not yet been made available. Standard text messaging and data rates will apply, of course.
[blogged with my Treo 750v]
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