NEW YORK, NY -- (Marketwired) -- 03/14/15 -- Today Blippar, the world's largest image recognition and augmented reality platform, demoed the first-ever proprietary mobile visual search capability at an exclusive event at South By Southwest. This relaunched version of the original Blippar app will change the way consumers interact with the physical world. Opening the free Blippar app, users will be able to simply "look" at any object via the camera on their mobile devices to activate instantaneous digital search and draw information directly from the world around them.
"Blippar has already worked with thousands of the world's largest brands and publishers to create engaging branded experiences that are triggered by objects, magazine pages, advertisements and more, 'blipped' by millions of users around the world," explains Blippar Founder and CEO Ambarish Mitra. "It is the healthy appetite for this new behavior that has fuelled the move into visual search."
Blippar will be launching this new capability by first making all English-language album covers, DVD covers, fiction books and movie posters blippable. When a user blipps one of these items or images they will instantaneously be presented with a range of contextual, snackable information. For example, if they blipp an album cover they may be presented with access to videos of the band, a source to buy tickets to an upcoming concert, details on what people are saying about the band on Twitter or photos of the band itself. This is just the first step in Blippar's ambitious mission to make the entire physical world visually searchable via mobile devices and wearables. In the future, Blippar will add to its growing catalogue of blippable objects in stages, with the ultimate aim of making everything blippable -- from an apple, to a chocolate bar, to a dog on the street, to the Eiffel Tower and beyond.
Web-based search as it exists today has dominated the digital experience, both online and mobile. From inputting keywords to digging through pages of links to access information, this governing search behavior is limited by vocabulary and literacy. Blippar's image recognition capabilities will extend beyond the confines of language to empower consumers to instantaneously pull timely, relevant information directly from the environment around them.
"The human imagination, curiosity and the quest for knowledge are all often limited by our capacity to define and assign language to describe and seek answers from the world around us," added Mitra. "Today marks the beginning of a new era of search, where curious users will be able to visually search the world through the lens of the Blippar app. The technology holds massive potential for enriching real world experiences and delivering genuine value to our users. The visual search is not replacing text-based search; it's an alternate behaviour which satisfies people's spontaneous needs of instant object focused curiosity, therefore introducing the light web."
Blippar's proprietary search engine is net neutral. Blippar users will be served the highest quality and most accurate sources of information within the app, displayed on a fluid user interface that uses design and color input directly from the blipped item itself. The speed and accuracy of the Blippar platform allows users to blipp and access information faster than traditional web search, with no delay in latency. Further, Blippar's location-based predictive computing uses deep learning and artificial intelligence to refine and personalize its visual search results for each user.
Blippar will continue to work closely with brands and agencies to bring products to life through engaging interactive experiences. The updated Blippar app will available for download on iOS and Android in April 2015. Further information can be found in this video.
About Blippar
Blippar™ is the world's fastest growing image recognition and augmented reality app. Utilizing proprietary, best-in-class image technologies, Blippar™ enables users to instantaneously pull interactive, informative digital content directly from the environment around them, their favorite publications, brands and objects via their iOS, Android or Windows devices. Since launching in the UK in 2011, Blippar™ has expanded rapidly, partnering with some of the biggest and most exciting media owners and brands in the world -- including Nestlé, Condé Nast, TIME Inc., Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Heinz, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Anheuser Busch, and Jaguar. To learn more, visit blippar.com.
Contact Information
LaunchSquad for Blippar
blippar@launchsquad.com
212-564-3665
