By Stevie Smith Dec 14, 2007, 10:50 GMT
Following on from its recently unveiled uber-green Eco Sensor Concept handset, Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia Corp. is pushing its technological vision toward the hugely influential world of online shopping.
Nokia developing 'Point and Find' technology to allow instant mobile phone shopping. Credit: FlashGSM.ro
Under the working name of ‘Point and Find,’ Nokia’s new technology will amazingly enable handset users to skip winding queues at checkouts or make a transaction at any time by simply photographing real-world items they would like to buy, and then purchase them through their phone.
British daily newspaper The Sun reports that the item in the photograph is subsequently processed through special recognition software inside the handset, which searches via a mobile Web browser for the cheapest available price. Furthermore, should the user opt to place an order, their item can be delivered within 24 hours.
While Nokia is claiming that Point and Find could revolutionise how people shop for their goods, the opportunity to actually take advantage of the ambitious system won’t likely to emerge before 2011, which is when a prototype version of the software is expected to launch.
Beyond the everyday benefits of being able to snap and shop through a mobile phone, Nokia also offers that its technology could also be used when UK users go abroad.
For example, New Scientist magazine outlines that when dining in a foreign restaurant, users could photograph the menu and have the software convert its written content back into English. The technology could also be developed to allow users to photograph popular tourist attractions and have the software search out viewable details from the Internet.
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