For those of us who have been in the digital image business for a number of years, it is pretty exciting to see the emergence of technologies that are now making those images interactive. For photographers, this opens up a whole new realm of possibilities and added value for your clients. In addition to digital watermarking, we’re beginning to see the use of 2-D barcodes and image recognition technologies to link readers of printed materials to video, the web, and more. 

This provides an incredible opportunity for the ailing publishing industry who must find a way to bridge their businesses to the internet. It’s also great for advertisers looking for new ways to engage consumers and get them to interact with their brands.

Recently, I was reading an article in one of the eNewsletters I receive regularly where it discussed the somewhat primitive nature of Google search, equating it with how we learn in the first few years of our lives. Facebook and Twitter are clearly opening up new ways to facilitate search online that involve a connection with others to help us find exactly what we are looking for.

But let’s take this vision of improved search one step further…with a seeing and hearing device that we carry with us 24/7 – our mobile phones. Imagine having information at your fingertips, literally, without being tethered to a mouse or keyboard. Since today’s phones are all coming equipped with cameras and microphones, it is easy to envision a future where our mobile phones will be able to “see and hear” all forms of media content and objects around us, and interact with them in a way that returns a wealth of information at the precise place and time that we want it.

And, how does this all relate to you? The images you’re taking, creating, and watermarking today can become portals to the web and connect consumers to a wide range of new experiences. How? I will leave that to a follow up blog posting… Think this all sounds a little far-fetched? Hey, I still remember life without a microwave oven or even a CD player. These new capabilities will be commonplace before we know it. What do you think?