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LinkMe Mobile has recently had the tremendous fortune of partnering with Ipplex, the team behind the very successful iVisit mobile video conferencing suite. They approached us initially for a license to our patents – being machine vision specialists involved with Neven Vision prior to the Google acquisition, they understood that not only were our recognition technologies superior to everything else in the market, but we hold the patents which define that market.

While we are thrilled with this license, we’re far more excited to be working with a team as forward-thinking and passionate as Ipplex. They’ve built a range of technologies which form a perfect complement to our own and together we’re actively working on a number of applications which will set new standards within the mobile market.

The power of this partnership is nowhere better evidenced than with LookTel, an Augmented Reality application for the visually impaired, which Ipplex is launching this week at CTIA Wireless. Not surprisingly, LookTel is a finalist in CTIA’s Emerging Technology (E-Tech) Awards, in the Healthcare/Public Safety/Transportation Category. In our opinion, nothing else comes close to having the same kind of potential impact on the market as LookTel.

The application itself is meritorious on a purely humanitarian basis. With 345 million visually impaired people globally and 11 million in the US alone (according to the WHO), plus millions of elderly – LookTel stands to make a direct, positive impact on the lives of a huge portion of the human race. By harnessing the incredible power afforded by various technologies within the mobile industry, including smartphones and our recognition technologies, LookTel allows us to take a significant step toward making society more inclusive of everyone. Smartphones don’t just allow us to manage emails and log-on to Facebook, they augment the senses we use to interact with our world. LookTel now does that for the visually impaired, by using image recognition capabilities to act as the “eyes” for those whose own eyesight can’t, and by using augmented reality to make the entire application simple, intuitive and as natural as possible.

LookTel also further proves the point we’ve been making for quite some time – relying on location as the basis for mobile phone user interaction is, in most cases, very limiting. Location is quite useful for navigation, but secondary to the type of data mobile phone users need in many situations. LookTel’s augmented reality uses true image recognition, not location, to determine what is in the phone’s field of vision. Other apps on the market use some variant of geo-location data to determine what the phone is pointing at relative to its location – this is completely limited. Aside from not accounting for real time environmental changes, it’s useless in recognizing what’s actually in front of you. You can’t point a location-based AR app at a twenty dollar bill and have it tell you anything meaningful. You can, however, point LookTel at a street corner and have it tell you exactly, precisely where you are.

LookTel is merely the first augmented reality application we will produce in partnership with Ipplex. We’re combining our collective technologies to build commerce, healthcare and industrial apps which will have the same kind of impact in their respective sectors that LookTel is making for the visually impaired.

We are proud to be in partnership with a team who not only stand at the forefront of technological development, but who understand the importance of applying its power to help others. Together we will create commercially standard-setting applications – and we’ll continue to find ways of harnessing the power of mobile technology for the betterment of humanity.

Watch the demo and you’ll see for yourself. And while doing so, take a moment to be grateful that you can – and you’ll better understand why LookTel is such an important development.

To read our press release about the unveiling of LookTel and our partnership with Ipplex, please click here.

dwm
Image Credit: LookTel/Ipplex

Hi. My name is Dave and I’m one of LinkMe Mobile’s software engineers. I work on the server-side parts of the system hidden from view – where all the magic happens – wearing different hats from tracking requirements and documenting architecture to coding and test automation.

I recently gave a talk at BarCamp San Diego entitled “Superpowers and Science Fiction: How Mobile Devices Can Change the World”. There was a ton of material packed into my presentation, which I’ll be unpacking in a series of blog posts about mobile technology.

BarCamp is an “unconference“ – an event that crowdsources the sharing of interesting ideas and information. Just like wikis and blogs provide a decentralized way for voices to be heard on the internet, an unconference provides an unfiltered forum for sharing ideas in person. A small core group of people (for Barcamp, this is mainly techies & developers) arranges a venue, gets donations from sponsors, and promotes the event — however, there isn’t a submission process and specific speakers aren’t scheduled in advance.

Attendees are encouraged to come prepared to talk and give demonstrations. This is an interactive conference at its best and we love hearing all the pioneering ideas our peers bring to the table. On the first day there’s an empty board on the wall where people can sign up for a time slot in one of the available rooms. There’s no filtering, but the feedback of the crowd provides its own kind of direction. It’s not unusual for presentations and informal discussions to influence the content of sessions later in the weekend and at subsequent BarCamp events.

The unconference phenomenon started in the technology community, but it has spread into real estate, government, and crisis response. Unconferences share the core values of decentralization and democratization that have been critical to the social success of the internet. I believe these same values will be at heart of future mobile & technology innovations – harnessing the power of communities and groups of individuals.

You might have noticed that I use the term “mobile device” rather than mobile phone, cell phone, smartphone, or superphone. That’s because I find the ability to make and receive phone calls one of the least interesting features. Instead, your phone can help you save lives, topple governments, and get free beer — the possibilities are truly endless.

There’s a huge selection of apps and accessories available for mobile devices. That’s in addition to the growing list of features embedded into them: email clients, web browsers, GPS receivers, compasses, and even the humble clock. Take a second to think about the implications of everybody carrying around a timepiece that is continuously kept accurate. Future generations will hear the phrase “synchronize your watches” in an old movie and wonder what that means.

The camera and microphone are two especially interesting components of mobile devices. They are the eyes and ears of mobile apps. The camera allows applications to recognize book & cd covers, logos, landmarks, and other images – even without barcodes. Check out our Barnes & Noble bookstore app for Apple’s iPhone and ipod Touch to see one of the best examples of a mobile phone’s camera in action.  Of the 1.8 million people who have already downloaded the app, the thing we hear the most is: “Wow, the coolest part is that I can just snap a photo and get back great content. It’s so easy.” The B&N app uses our patented image recognition technology to recognize user images and send back info on where to find their fav cds or dvds — even instant purchasing right from your phone!  Our patented technologies are what I help to craft & hone each day as we constantly strive to make our tech work smarter & faster.

A mobile phone’s microphone allows people to interact naturally with applications through spoken words.  We also have patents on our voice recognition technologies with our technology partner, MeMeMe. Upcoming apps we’re building will allow you to not only take a photo of something, but also to speak the name of a product, or use words to describe it, to find even more great promotions and information.

We’ve only begun to tap into the potential for using mobile devices to augment our senses and abilities in everyday life.  Keep your eye on LinkMe Mobile for all the newest cutting-edge technologies in mobile.

- Dave
Super Engineer

Image Credits:  (1) Jennifer Reiswig (2) Erik Eldridge (3) www.CapedWonder.com & (4) Barnes & Noble (in order)

In his article “Despite Small Numbers, Magazines are Big on Barcodes” in today’s Advertising Age “The Digital Issue” (on newsstands and online), writer Nat Ives posits the question we ask everyday: “You could be forgiven for wondering why magazines keep adding interactive bar codes and icons, those symbols that let camera phones fetch extra content or special offers, once you realize how few readers use the things.”

Mr. Ives’s article clearly highlights the issue our business partners all know very well – our image recognition software has the ability to recognize barcodes, tags, QR codes or any other symbol – but there is absolutely no need to use them.

As Mr. Ives cites, our barcode-based competitors see only a few thousand (in some cases only a few hundred) consumer responses with their campaigns, whereas in one campaign alone our partner saw over 600,000 consumer responses. Frankly, there is no comparison, nor can there be.

We look at something like this:

and we scratch our heads and ask, “Why would someone do this?” As a CEO, if my marketing department presented this to me, knowing (1) how much money is spent on ad creative and placement, (2) the importance of conveying the optimal message to consumers and (3) how crucial brand image is in the attempt to positively influence consumer behavior, I would seriously question whether I had the right people in my marketing department.

What exactly is the message this advertisement is attempting to convey to potential consumers?

What is that thing which occupies 50% of the page and what does it have to do with the image of the brand or the content of the ad?

Barcodes play a critical role in the supply chain of every product, but have no need to do so in areas which are consumer-facing. No matter how colorful or clever one tries to make them, barcodes of any kind are, simply-put, unattractive. They do not enhance an image in any way whatsoever:

They are also completely unnecessary. We have spent years building proprietary patented technology which works by recognizing the entire image and returning whatever kind of information or experience the advertiser, broadcaster or retailer wants their consumers and users to receive – from special promotions to coupons to videos, augmented reality, games and more.  An enormous amount of time, resources and money is spent on every piece of marketing collateral. Our technology works with it as it was intended to be seen, with no changes to the creative.

Please click HERE to view a recent Case Study about our wildly successful partnership with Woman’s Day referenced in Mr.Ives’ AdAge article.

This is what an advertisement looks like which employs our technology:

Note the absence of any kind of intrusive symbols. Users simply take a picture of the ad with their phone and we allow the advertisers (in this case our partners Coty and Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku Lovers fragrance line) to return any kind of information they would like.

Our technology works on any phone with a camera, requires no downloads and works across all carriers. Of course, we also build highly sophisticated and successful apps for smartphones, as an app can provide a much richer user experience, and apps do need to be downloaded. Our Barnes & Noble app, for example, currently has over 1.5 million users and remains a top ten application in Apple’s iTunes App Store, 8 months after launch. However, our technology does not require an app to work – it only requires a phone with a camera.

Mr Ives’ AdAge article addresses the point a rapidly growing number of our new customers have come to realize: barcodes are garnering a lot of attention, but they are really not the best solution. Our technology works because it disrupts neither the creative nor the workflow itself – all that’s needed is the original ad.

Advertisers and retailers continue to experiment with the various alternatives, and we see some customers moving amongst the different competitors in response to artificial pricing or corporate pressures. Our results speak for themselves –Recognition accuracy in excess of 96% – Conversion rates of 25% – and more than 600,000 users interacting with a single campaign.  These are the kind of results we want to help you achieve.

To find out how, please contact us! We want to ensure your ads don’t turn out like this:

Image Credits: (1) STA Travel/JagTag (2) Esquire Magazine (3) Coty/Harajuku Lovers & (4) Mad Magazine (in order)

Last year LinkMe Mobile had some truly groundbreaking campaigns — and our partnership with Coty and Clear Channel was no exception. Joining our technology with the world’s largest fragrance company and the biggest global outdoor & mall advertising enterprise made for a perfect fit.  We thought it would be interesting to test how mall shoppers responded to a link-enabled in-mall billboard — the first of its kind in the world.  Using a hot, new campaign from Coty Prestige’s wildly popular Harajuku Lovers fragrance line created by pop star Gwen Stefani, we added an interactive “Call-To-Action” to their existing ad — i.e. Text in the upper right corner of the 4ft by 6ft in-mall displays asked passing shoppers to take a photo of the image with their mobile phones and send it to an email address to receive “A Free Sample!”

These posters were displayed in Clear Channel malls across the U.S. in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Miami.  After a consumer emailed their photo of the ad to the specified address, our technology would recognize the image (with a 96% accuracy rate!) and return a coupon directly to their phone. The message instructed the person to show their new coupon at the fragrance counter of the Macy’s department store in the mall they were in — and they would instantly receive a free deluxe Harajuku Lovers fragrance sample set!  Pretty cool.  The point of the campaign was twofold.  First, to see if consumers would interact with in-mall advertising if it was link-enabled with our technology — and second, could we actually drive retail traffic sales if we offered something really fabulous?? (i.e. free samples!!)  Even we were surprised with the success of the results.

At the end of the campaign, we surveyed the participants.  We discovered that a staggering 25% of mall shoppers who took a photo of the ad and received the mobile coupon made purchases at Macy’s after they got their sample — 7% of people made purchases over $20.00 and 18% made purchases over $40.00. To date, the only other similar campaign of its kind used Bluetooth to deliver mobile coupons to mall shoppers.  The average number of consumers that purchased product after receiving the Bluetooth coupon totaled 7% — ours totaled 25% — big difference!  An additional 7% of the participants in our campaign said they would purchase more Harajuku Lovers perfume — and more products from Macy’s — in the future, but that they wouldn’t have done so if they hadn’t been introduced through “this cool campaign.”  It became obvious from the results of the campaign that people really liked interacting with brands by taking photos with their phone — especially if they would receive great stuff (e.g. coupons, specials or samples) in return.

The ages of people who interacted with the ads were also fascinating – as young as 15 years old and up to 54. In rating their overall experience, consumers told us it was “A Fun Way To Use The Phone!” and “So Simple!” as two of the coolest things about the experience.  64% told us they wanted to be part of more interactive campaigns using their mobile phones – and a whopping 86% said they would recommend LinkMe Mobile campaigns to friends and family.  We could have never dreamed for such fabulous results.

LinkMe Mobile is always on the cutting-edge of new ways to use our patented image and voice recognition technologies.  Keep in touch with us and we’ll let you know where you can find LinkMe Mobile in your world!

If you’re interested, please click here to read the full Case Study about the LinkMe Mobile, Coty, ClearChannel project.

And click here to contact us by email if you’re interested in a similar campaign for your company.  We’d love to hear from you.

Image Credit: Coty & Clear Channel

These are exciting times for anyone in the mobile sector, but especially for us. In the US with LinkMeMobile, and with our global brands in Japan, China, Canada and the UK, we’re signing new contracts with some of the most significant retailers around the world on a weekly basis. Our patented image recognition and voice recognition technologies have allowed us to create an approach to mobile search that dramatically changes mobile advertising, couponing and therefore mobile commerce. While most others rely on the guess-work provided by GPS, we allow our partners to respond directly to specific inquiries consumers make from their phones, and to interact in real-time with those consumers. This is ideal for both – retailers can directly influence the “buy” decision the very moment that decision is made and consumers can leverage that to get the best possible deal. The only other way to accomplish this would be to have someone standing next to each consumer as they make a purchase.

We see an increasing number of competitors in this sector — mostly companies attempting to use bar code scanners or some form of QR codes or other odd, unattractive symbols. The problem with every one of these is that no matter how clever the symbol, ultimately they are very ugly and they alter and ruin all the efforts put into brand creativity and advertising. They’re also completely unnecessary. Besides the fact that nearly all of these infringe upon our patents, our technology consistently achieves over 96% accuracy recognizing any naked image – without the need for adulterating symbols or embedded watermarks. Again and again, ours is proven the best choice for both retailers and consumers.   In Japan — where QR codes originated and are ubiquitous — we’re now constantly being approached by people telling us they no longer want to use them and much prefer the flexibility and results we can provide.

All of this has taken us to the point where we felt it time to start reaching out directly to consumers, as more and more of them are downloading our applications and using our technology every day. We’ve therefore added this blog into our site — and integrated Facebook, Twitter, RSS feed and Share This options — to better serve our customers and consumers. We’ll be using these social media outlets to keep the dialogue open and flowing in both directions — most importantly, to ensure we provide the best service we can. We believe every mobile phone should be a Discovery Device ™ and with your help and ideas we’ll continue creating, learning and growing our technology and our apps to answer your needs. I invite everyone to connect with us and let us know what we can do with our technologies to make your life better.

All the best,

dwm

President & CEO

Image Credit: Paul Rumohr, www.prpic.com