Neven Vision, a biometric company specializing in image recognition, has been aquired by Google. “Neven Vision is changing the way we interact with the world by providing innovative applications for mobile devices based on image recognition technology. Neven Vision has developed a suite of mobile recognition technologies that enable images to become the interface to digital content—photos of advertisements become hyperlinks to branded content portals, while your camera phone can snap a picture of your face to secure verification of identity and control access to your private data. By equipping customers with an intuitive visual interface that anyone can use, this technology is unlocking vastly untapped market opportunities in Mobile Marketing and Commerce, Personal Security, and Biometric Identity Verification.”

According to InfoWorld: “Google Inc. plans to strengthen its Picasa photo management software and service with the acquisition of Neven Vision” - and that’s what everyone is talking about. While this may be true, we think Google has intentions far beyond that of “strengthening Picasa”, and by that we mean there is definitely something stirring at Google in regards to mobile object oriented search. See the Google Vision concept.

Neven was founded about 10 years ago as a biometrics company but in the last few years changed its focus to mobile visual search. Customers include NTT DoCoMo (for authenticating transactions), the U.S. government (including the LAPD for identifying gang members), and Coca-Cola (for mobile marketing campaigns).