Video identification, search and discovery company VideoSurf Inc. continues to expand its reach by today launching a free iPhone app, which VideoSurf said is the first technology to use the iPhone camera for video recognition of TV shows. The product follows VideoSurf’s release of the Android version, which was updated earlier this month.
Moving into mobile makes a lot of sense for VideoSurf, because putting it on a handset makes it more practical to use V-ID feature. Users hold their phone’s camera up to the screen, and the app identifies what the user is watching and provides more information about the show and cast, offers unique content, and suggests other similar videos to watch. Choosing the Show Details screen also presents content from Twitter, Facebook, TV Guide, the TVDB and elsewhere. The obvious comparison is that it’s like Shazam for video and live television.
“We are proud to have created the first app to make the iPhone capable of visually identifying what’s on TV and who appears on screen, all in real time,” said Lior Delgo, CEO and co-founder of VideoSurf. “VideoSurf’s app makes it easy for users to find what to watch on TV and online and get more from the shows they love.”
Among VideoSurf’s investors are: Al Gore, former U.S. vice president; Joel Hyatt, CEO and co-founder of Current Media (and chairman of VideoSurf’s board); Hanan Gilutz, management consultant with McKinsey & Co.; David Goldberg, CEO of Survey Monkey; and Pitango Venture Capital. The company reports that VideoSurf reaches over 20 million unique users per month, and that the next feature it intends to introduce is an embeddable video player.
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