23half, a developer of technologies designed to extend the functionality of camera phones, announced the availability of the beta version of Thrrum Visual Search on select camera phone models. Thrrum Visual Search enables camera phone users to access comparison shops and lookup relevant information by pointing their camera phones at products and other objects of interest in their physical environment. Users need to simply point the camera at an object and click the camera button to get the desired information on their phone.

"Mobile information access need not be restricted to a miniature replica of the desktop web search paradigm," said K. Gopalakrishnan, Founder and CEO of 23half. "With Thrrum on their camera phones, users can point their camera phone at a book, a product label or any print material, click, and get relevant search results right inside the Thrrum application on their phone. With Thrrum, camera phones become visual information browsers for the users' environment."

With almost 500 million camera phones sold in 2006, Gartner Research predicts more than 1 billion camera phones to be sold by 2010. Combined with ever increasing adoption of wireless data connectivity, the connected camera in phones presents a new platform for innovation. Thrrum Visual Search brings together visual recognition technologies and information search in the context of camera phones. Based on technology first demonstrated by 23half in 2005 in the "nThrum" technology demonstrator, Thrrum presents a unique 1-click approach to hyperlinking physical objects with related information. The Thrrum service and the technology powering the service are protected by an extensive suite of patents.

Thrrum is currently available as a free download for select mobile phones and will soon be available for an expanding array of phones. Users can sign up for invitations to the free beta program HERE.