A new Toshiba software will let shoppers use their handsets to check the reputations of products on the Internet, reveals Asahi.

When the cellphone camera shoots the bar code of the book, DVD, snack or other product, the information is sent to a server, which then searches through blogs for reviews. 10 seconds later, a summary is displayed on the phone screen reporting how many blogs were positive and how many were negative. The actual comments on the blogs can also be viewed as well as information on related products.

A similar service is already being provided by a Sony Corp. affiliate. Photo Navi Wine offers information on wines from cellphone shots of wine labels. By attaching a label image to an e-mail message and sending it to photo@wine55.jp, details, such as the wine’s classification and country, will be mailed back in 15 to 20 second.

Restaurant customers can become instant sommeliers. Sony’s image recognition technology recognizes even vague or crooked camera shots taken in dark restaurants and can make matches with the roughly 3,000 brands Zeta Bridge holds information on. About 500 brands can be ordered using the cellphone

A new Toshiba software will let shoppers use their handsets to check the reputations of products on the Internet, reveals Asahi.
When the cellphone camera shoots the bar code of the book, DVD, snack or other product, the information is sent to a server, which then searches through blogs for reviews. 10 seconds later, a summary [...]