Professor Roberto Cipolla and Duncan Robertson's 'Photo Recognition' software is featured in a recent issue of the New Scientist.
They have developed an application for the software that will allow people to use their mobile phones to find out where they are, and how to get to their destination. Very useful for people who are in a strange city and cannot speak the language!
The idea is that the user can take a photograph of a building near where they are in a city centre and send it to a remote server, using their mobile phone. The software uses a database of images to work out where the user is standing to within one metre, by matching the photograph sent in to the appropriate building.
A prototype using the buildings in Cambridge City centre is currently being developed.