NeoMedia Technologies, Inc (NEOM)

[ss9173]

DD ActiveSymbol (Friend, Foe, or Future Business Partner)

From PP: ActiveSymbol Debuts Camera Phone Mobile Marketing Tool

http://theponderingprimate.blogspot.com/2006/03/activesymbol-debuts-camera-phone.html

Another physical world connection company and another great mobile marketing campaign.

ActiveSymbols lables it a visual "Google" for customers.

From CBS Marketwatch ActiveSymbols debuts MobilePromote

Racing fans attending this weekend's Toyota Indy 300 at Miami's Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 26 will be invited to "Take a Mobile Test Lap" with MobilePromote 1.0, a fun, new service for mobile consumers.

Cell phone users will be able to subscribe to live race-day alerts and download rich content using this brand-new mobile imaging technology service offered by ActiveSymbols , a Logicalis Company and a sponsor of the Rahal Letterman Racing IndyCar team.

The MobilePromote service enables mobile consumers with popular camera phones, from manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Hewlett-Packard, to send text messages or pictures to an online ActiveSymbols database.

A unique and patent-pending key attribute of the ActiveSymbols technology is its ability to interpret a photograph taken with an auto-focus camera, intelligently match it with an image in its database, and return a response appropriate to the photograph and the time it was taken.

ActiveSymbols works with:


Text Messaging, 1D Barcodes, 2D Barcodes, Branded 2D Symbols, any Branded Image (logo)

Once the message is received, it is matched against a sponsor's promotion and a rich content message link is returned to the caller.

View the demo: http://www.activesymbols.com/index.htm

What can ActiveSymbol do? http://www.activesymbols.com/services.htm

The Logicalis ActiveSymbols™ server can accept and decode images captured from virtually all Webcams, camera phones, web-enabled PDAs, scanners and fax machines on the consumer market today. Here are just some of the ways you can take advantage of this innovative technology:

SymbolSearch™

Used by eRetailers and advertising to drive consumption of digital content (songs, movie trailers, ring tones, wallpaper, purchase information, games).

• Music Search (CD covers)
• Movie Search (Poster and DVD covers)
• Game Search (Game covers)
• Book Search (Book Covers)
• Brand Search (Print Advertising)
• Product Search (Barcodes)
• Business Process Automation (Real-time Real Estate MLS Lookups)
• Games (Snap a picture of a friend and retrieve celebrity look-a-likes)
• Translator (Snap a picture of a sign in a foreign language and get a translation)
• Location Information (Snap a picture of a street sign and receive a map and business directions)

onePic CRM™

Used by business professionals to save and organize copies of important documents while away from the office, and in real-time. No more lost business cards or expenses; send signed documents via fax from your phone. Get real-time research on your contacts sent to your mobile phone.

* ezCard: Take a picture of a business card and get instant information on the person and company.
• ezExpense: Take a picture of a receipt and process it later when you're back at your PC.
• ezScan: Take a picture of a document and save it for future use or fax it to a customer immediately (great for NDAs, orders, POs, etc.)

mobilePromote™

Used by sponsors of promotional events (e.g. live sporting events), mobilePromote™ allows users to sign up for real-time alerts by taking a picture of a sponsor's signage. Sponsors then have access to a captive audience to create loyalty and send event specific promos and purchasing information.

• Enter Sweepstakes
• Cast a vote or participate in a poll
• Real-time Alerts (Sporting news as it happens, trade show schedule updates, etc.)
• Receive Coupons
• Trade Show or Event Registration and Authentication
• General Schedule, Reminder, Update Alerts

MorphMe™

Take pictures of yourself or others and see what you and a celebrity's baby would look like, or morph yourself into a cartoon character or emoticon, and apply various image filters.

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From CBS Marketwatch: http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7B3016F0F6%2D3212%2D4B05%2DA7AD%2DAAA5548C7D6...

ActiveSymbols Debuts MobilePromote Mobile Consumer Service at Toyota Indy 300; Links Popular Camera Phones to Race-Day Alerts, Ring Tones and Wallpapers

MIAMI, Mar 24, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- ActiveSymbols:
-- New Service Allows Mobile Consumers to Text Message or Send Photos from Popular Camera Phones and Receive Event-Specific Alerts and Rich Content

Racing fans attending this weekend's Toyota Indy 300 at Miami's Homestead-Miami Speedway on March 26 will be invited to "Take a Mobile Test Lap" with MobilePromote 1.0, a fun, new service for mobile consumers. Cell phone users will be able to subscribe to live race-day alerts and download rich content using this brand-new mobile imaging technology service offered by ActiveSymbols, a Logicalis Company and a sponsor of the Rahal Letterman Racing IndyCar team. And, beginning at the Toyota Indy 300 race and leading up to the Indianapolis 500 race, mobile consumers will be able to enter to win a series of Indy-themed prizes.

The MobilePromote service enables mobile consumers with popular camera phones, from manufacturers such as Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Hewlett-Packard, to send text messages or pictures to an online ActiveSymbols database. Once the message is received, it is matched against a sponsor's promotion and a rich content message link is returned to the caller. As part of the "Take a Mobile Test Lap" service, callers can choose to receive:

-- Alerts -- Same day race-day alerts providing car and driver details throughout the race

-- Themed Ring tones -- Free racing-themed ring tones, including the inimitable and familiar sounds of an IndyCar engine revving and an IndyCar screaming by on the straightaway

-- Additional Rich Content -- Downloadable camera phone wallpaper of Rahal Letterman Racing IndyCar team drivers, including 2004 Indy 500 champion Buddy Rice and 2005 IndyCar Series Rookie of the Year, Danica Patrick

-- Subscriptions -- Subscribe to Racer magazine from Haymarket Publishing

"ActiveSymbols offers a whole new dimension for event-specific communications and state-of-the-art brand marketing," said ActiveSymbols president Jeff Reed. "As a sponsor of Rahal Letterman Racing, we felt the open-wheel racing environment offered a perfect opportunity to demonstrate this new mobile consumer technology."

Julie Klausner, marketing director at Rahal Letterman Racing, adds: "ActiveSymbols is unique technology that helps match sponsors and racing enthusiasts -- both of whom are our customers -- in a non-obtrusive way. We look forward to leveraging this new technology with Logicalis."

Win Prizes in the "Take a Mobile Test Lap" Contest

Beginning at the Toyota Indy 300 race and leading up to the Indianapolis 500 race on May 28, 2006, MobilePromote participants will also be entered into a special drawing for a chance to win one of three unique prizes, including:

-- Replica IndyCar -- An authentic scale replica of Danica Patrick's Rahal Letterman Racing IndyCar, signed by the driver

-- HP Camera Phones -- One of a pair of the latest HP camera phones

Race enthusiasts can obtain instructions for subscribing to event-specific alerts for each IndyCar race on signage during each race event, or by visiting the ActiveSymbols Web site at http://www.activesymbols.com

More details about the MobilePromote 1.0 technology are available online at http://www.activesymbols.com

ActiveSymbols for Brand Marketers

The ActiveSymbols platform provides a variety of applications for linking mobile consumers with brand marketers while delivering new revenue opportunities for mobile carriers.
When a MobilePromote consumer texts a message or photographs a branded image from their camera phone and sends it to the ActiveSymbols server, it acts as a trigger for a series of events. When ActiveSymbols recognizes that either the text or image is linked to a brand marketer, it then performs a specific task associated with that brand marketer, such as sending race-day alerts or the opportunity to download a ring tone.

"When ActiveSymbols returns a message related to something that a mobile consumer texts or photographs, the potential of the platform becomes clear," Reed said.

A unique and patent-pending key attribute of the ActiveSymbols technology is its ability to interpret a photograph taken with an auto-focus camera, intelligently match it with an image in its database, and return a response appropriate to the photograph and the time it was taken.

"It is great fun to experiment with MobilePromote, but the technology also has far-reaching business applications," said Reed. "On a simple level, for example, a mobile business consumer can use a camera phone to take pictures of business cards or business receipts, then upload the images to an intelligent database that will sort, file, and store the information for the user," explains Reed.

"In addition, we are developing more complex applications for the technology, including the ability to intelligently interpret images such as logos and respond accordingly," says Reed. "For example, if a racing fan takes a picture of the Rahal Letterman Racing logo, then emails it to our database ActiveSymbols will then send a link to team-specific information, such as car and driver statistics. The possibilities are endless for both consumers and business partners."

MobilePromote 1.0 and other ActiveSymbols technologies will be demonstrated during the CTIA Wireless 2006 show, held in Las Vegas, April 5-7. A major consumer launch of the entire ActiveSymbols platform and applications is scheduled for the Indianapolis 500 race event, held on Sunday, May 28, 2006.
"At Homestead, race fans will get just a taste of what the ActiveSymbols platform can do," said Reed. "At the Indianapolis 500, the biggest and most historic open-wheel race in America, we'll have finished our test drives, and we'll be ready for full competition."

About ActiveSymbols

ActiveSymbols, a Logicalis Company, is bringing mobile consumers together with brand marketers via a unique and patent-pending brand image database technology. ActiveSymbols(TM) Enterprise Server (patent pending) is an enterprise-class scalable platform enabling image and object recognition (computer vision), text recognition (OCR), biometrics (facial recognition), and linear (1D) and 2D barcode decoding from everyday consumer devices such as camera phones and PDAs. We like to call it "visual searching in the palm of your hand." For more information on ActiveSymbols, please visit www.activesymbols.com.

About Logicalis

Logicalis is a global provider of high-performance technology solutions. Logicalis and its affiliated companies employ 1,000 people worldwide, including highly trained service specialists who specify, design, deploy and manage IT infrastructure to meet the needs of over 5,000 corporate and public sector customers. Logicalis maintains strong partnerships with technology leaders such as HP, IBM, Cisco and EMC.
Logicalis is a part of Logicalis Group, a division of Datatec Limited (JSE:DTCJ), a $3 billion business listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. With its international headquarters in the UK, Logicalis Group has annualized global revenues of approximately $750 million from operations in the U.S., UK, Germany and South America. In North America, Logicalis' annualized revenues amount to some $475 million with over 450 employees in the U.S. For more information, visit www.us.logicalis.com.
Indy 500(R) and IndyCar(R) are registered trademarks of Brickyard Trademarks, Inc.
SOURCE: ActiveSymbols
Communication Strategy Group for ActiveSymbols Arthur Germain, 631-239-6335 [e-mail] www.gocsg.com Copyright Business Wire 2006

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