"ER Search is an entirely new way for connecting consumers with content and companies," said Satoshi Oshita, CEO of Bandai Networks. "Because ER Search runs on mobile phones, searches happen when and where the customer is, as soon as they see something that they're interested in. Additionally, the fact that a customer simply has to click a picture of a product or advertisement, makes the search process far easier and immediate than anything that has been available before."



We discussed about the Picollator image-based search engine that’s not working and about the ActiveSymbols search platform that works by comparing your uploaded picture with famous people faces from a database, that’s not perfect either.
What Satoshi Oshita described above is a new search engine based on image queries, but designed for mobile phones.

It was just launched in Japan by KDDI mobile carrier and Bandai Networks mobile content provider, and it uses the Evolution Robotics' ViPR recognition system compatible with the latest camera phone models.
The ER Search visual search engine will is included in KDDI’s Spring 2008 "au" camera phones line and will allow users to search based on the pictures they capture with the cell phone.

So if you have a camera phone from KDDI with ER Search and you want to know more about the artists singing on the CD you just saw in the store, you can simply take a picture with the CD and the search engine will return relevant information about the artist, album and songs.
KDDI says that if you want to buy a specific product you can take a picture from the catalog you are browsing, to order it instantly.

Here is the demonstration of this new image-based search engine: