An augmented reality (AR) application uses Autonomy's high-powered search technology - hitherto just aimed at commercial clients - to link all sorts of things it sees through a smartphones camera to other objects. So users can point their phones camera at a poster for the movie Thor - and it will suddenly start playing a trailer. And if users show their camera the London Underground symbol a cartoon starts to play with an athletics commentary, promoting the Tube as the way to get to the London Olympics.
This is not working via barcodes or NFC technology but through visual recognition. Aurasma is building up a bank of images which it recognises, and sees as a cue to play the video or animate the graphic. It works not just with images on a page but with buildings, landscapes, and soon, we're promised, with people. The app is currently only available on the iPhone 4 but already, newspapers are talking about turning display adverts into video ads - which can earn them more. And movie studios are planning sightseeing tours where you see parts of a film played out in the real world.
More information:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13558137
More information:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13558137