SnapTell: Instant product lookup from your iPhone 21 Nov 2008

If you have an iPhone, you'll probably want to check out SnapTell Explorer. It works like so: You snap a photo of the cover of any CD, DVD, book or video game using your phone's in-built camera. The application then uses image recognition software to identify the product and find ratings and pricing information online. (The image recognition part works by either matching the image itself with those stored in SnapTell's database or by reading text contained in the image to conduct a search).

Sceptical? Well, reviews so far have been unanimously positive. TechCrunch, for example, had this to say:

"I was skeptical when I first saw the app - the iPhone has had difficulty with image processing for barcodes, and most image recognitions systems I've tried on other platforms have been iffy at best. But SnapTell just works. Every time.

"The app correctly identified just about everything I threw at it: Xbox games, Pocketbook O'Reilly manuals, The Dalai Lama's Little Book of Wisdom, Kurt Vonegut novels, and a number of more obscure books (yes, it worked on The Twinkies Cookbook). It even managed to ID a copy of Civilization 4, despite the fact that it was covered in obnoxious price tags and stickers. I actually tried to mess it up by taking photos in poor lighting and odd angles, but the app still stayed nearly flawless. No, it doesn't have everything - I managed to stump it on a book about Danish Grammar - but it will do just fine for any trip to a retail store."

Impressive stuff! Did we mention that it's FREE too!