Kooaba is a mobile image search engine that now has a version for the IPhone. Like 2-D barcode applications, it can be used with a mobile phone's camera to 'image' something, say a poster, and link it to mobile content like a web site. Unlike barcodes it does not require you to paste a cryptic code on a poster, it recognizes the image itself. Remember this very obtrusive 2D barcode example. Would be nice if Kooaba worked on bar codes as well. To get people comfortable with using their mobile phones to extract information from an object, though only after there was a critical mass of things to link to. The objects scanned don't need to be flat images, but can also be things like buildings. Also has an API to serve up images.
Tested it on the movie posters they give on the web site, not yet on images I supply. Even with Wi-Fi it took a minute plus to send and analyze the image. I did have to retake some of the photos. Some other use cases. Based on work at ETH Zurich, KU Leuven and Toyota Motor. Worth a closer look. Surely an enabler of an internet of things.
Here also is Kooaba's blog.
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