Layar, the world’s largest augmented reality platform, has announced its partnership with Telefonica I+D, the research and development branch of the Telifonica Group. Through the partnership, the two companies will be developing a new brand of search engine that relies on images rather than text. Called Visual Search Technology, the innovative search engine will be made for the IRIS platform; one of Telifonica’s most advanced augmented reality programs. Visual Search may soon come to define how people browse the Internet.
It can sometimes be difficult to find the words to describe something seen in the real world. Instead of spending time typing phrases into a search engine and scouring the results, Layar wishes to provide consumers with a more intuitive experience that requires nothing more than a picture. Using IRIS, smart phone users will be able to snap a picture of just about anything in the real world and have that image embedded into the Visual Search engine. The engine then treks through the Internet to find information relevant to that picture.
Visual recognition technology is not entirely new – Google has been using it to some extent for several years now – but, coupled with augmented reality, the technology may become more popular as it becomes more easy to use. Both Layar and Telifonica I+D will continue developing the technology and may be ready to launch it within the next year.
