"Snap" technology

A roundup of the players in the space:

SnapTell
"SnapTell is a provider of image recognition-based mobile marketing solutions... Consumers can now use their camera phone easily to snap a picture of a DVD cover, send the picture to SnapTell using MMS messaging, and get back info about the movie on their cell phone." SnapTell seems to market itself primarily in the entertainment category.

MyClick
(Mentioned in the earlier pizza and mobile post)
Consumers install MyClick technology on their phones; when they take a photo of MyClick enabled content -- whether print, outdoor or internet -- they receive information on the product. (In the case of the Pizza Hut promotion, consumers could win discounts and prizes through this technology.) The company was launched in Hong Kong in 2006.

Mobot
Mobot claims that, "Designed to allow you to seamlessly integrate Mobot, no modifications are required to your existing visual media — no keywords, phone numbers, URLs, short codes, product codes, or bar codes are necessary. Mobot visual matching technology 'reads' the image and delivers a wide range of responses to the consumer."

Like the other services, Mobot requires that a consumer take a photo of an object and send it to Mobot in order to get the response the marketer has selected (which could be anything from getting a ringtone to a coupon to information on the object or brand.)