Camera phone users can now find and browse information relevant to their environment using picture messaging

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., May 13 /PRNewswire/ -- 23half Inc., a pioneer of technologies that extend the functionality of camera phones, announced the launch of Thrrum MMS Search. Thrrum MMS Search enables camera phone users to find and browse information related to their physical environment using the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) integrated into their phones. Users can capture a picture of any text with their camera phone. Relevant search results are then sent to the users’ phones. The Thrrum MMS Search service is presently in beta and is available free of charge to AT&T wireless subscribers in the United States.

"Thrrum introduced the exciting visual click-to-search experience last year," said K. Gopalakrishnan, CEO of 23half. "Now, Thrrum MMS Search extends the experience to additional devices without requiring any software to be downloaded. Users of camera phones can point their camera phone at a book, a product label or any printed material, take a picture and send an MMS to get relevant information right on their phone. With Thrrum, any text that you see around you becomes a hyperlink that can be ’clicked’ upon with your camera phone."

With more than 500 million camera phones sold annually, Gartner Research predicts camera phones sales to exceed 1 billion by 2010. Combined with ever increasing adoption of MMS usage, the connected camera in phones presents a new platform for innovation.

Thrrum MMS Search brings together visual recognition technologies and information search in the context of camera phones. Based on technology first demonstrated by 23half in 2005 in the "nThrum" technology demonstrator, Thrrum MMS Search presents a unique approach to hyperlinking the physical world with related information. The MMS Search technology is protected by an extensive suite of patents pending worldwide.

23half http://www.23half.com/