Imagine sitting in a café on holiday enjoying a bottle of wine. You would like to know more about it, perhaps order some for home. You get out your smartphone, take a picture of the label and are instantly taken to a website with information about the vineyard and the grape variety, as well as a link to an e-commerce site where you can order a case at the click of a button. You wonder what the historic building on the piazza in front of you is, so you hold up the phone, which links to a Wikipedia page on the history of the monument. You then turn your attention to the menu, written in a language you do not speak. Hold the smartphone over the page and the text is translated for you.
All these things are becoming possible as image recognition technology and augmented reality come together with portable devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. These developments could not only change the way we interact with the internet, enabling us to use real-life objects and places, rather than typing in text, to find information. They could also change the way business interacts with consumers.
A number of recent advertising campaigns give a flavour of what is possible. Consumers in the UK with an iPhone, iPad or a Google Android phone can bring print advertisements for the film Bridesmaids to life, for example, simply by pointing their devices at the image. If they had downloaded the application Aurasma Lite, created by Autonomy, the UK search technology company, the device would recognise the poster and automatically play the film trailer.