Rangefinder Magazine
Archives

June 2000


Web Sight: ImageID by Marshal M. Rosenthal
Building Profit Through Technology

It's unusual to run across a company with a compelling product that can impact professional photographers in a broad manner. ImageID combines the power of imaging recognition with the Internet's speed of transmission that obviates distance. The technology basically identifies a person and matches him or her up with a digital photo taken earlier.

Example scenario: You and the family are at a theme park and receive a "sticker" to wear that is actually the smart code needed for ImageID to operate when a digital camera snaps a shot of you later on.

That ImageID is ideal for event-driven venues seems obvious, but it also has implications for use that go much farther in these days of web cams and personal ID systems tied into computers and Internet "appliances."

Traditional event photography is, at best, a hit-and-miss proposition. At amusement and theme parks, cruise lines and other photo-dense environments, visitors must make an extra effort to find their photos among hundreds of others in order to make a purchase. Photographers still dealing in the paper and chemical realm waste film, paper and developer on pictures that are never sold. At those venues which have gone digital, guests still must work to find their photos among dozens of others in crowded rooms filled with T.V. monitors, resulting in many lost sales opportunities. And whether it's a paper or digital-based system, the opportunity for photo sales ends as soon as the customer goes home. ImageID's Smart Picture technology overcomes these problems by creating photo sales opportunities which were not possible before.

With Smart Picture technology, photographs literally find the customer, rather than the other way around. When a guest walks up to an ImageID Photo Kiosk, the built-in camera identifies them from their Imagecode sticker and instantly displays all the pictures that have been taken of them. Through a touch-screen interface along with verbal instructions, the Kiosk guides the guest through the process of reviewing photos and making purchases with cash or credit card. By the time the guest walks to the gift shop, the photo enlargements are ready and waiting. No long lines and no wasted film or paper. And since the ImageID photos are automatically stored for two months on the company web site [www.thesmartpicture.com], further photos can be purchased for delivery as prints. The images can also be e-mailed to family and friends to view for making purchases, as well. A private PIN code secures images only for those authorized to view them.
.
For event photographers, the ImageID system provides a vehicle for selling pictures via the Internet to all event participants. Today, only the event organizer has access to the photos. For the organizer of a 200-person event, the client base increases from one to 200 due to Smart Picture distribution. Smart Picture technology and distribution can therefore increase increases photo sales and maximize profits. Photos are easy to access and purchase. More people have access to their photos for a greater length of time-resulting in more sales. Photos can be shared with the family and friends of those who have attended the event over the Internet-increasing sales opportunities by broadening the customer base. And the digital format allows the images to be imprinted on a variety of functional photo novelty items which people are known to want, such as coffee mugs, key-rings and T-shirts, as well as other items.

Finally, Smart Picture technology has the ability to help introduce the idea of Internet imaging to a cross section of the population, encouraging greater interest in photography as well as in viewing photos online.

Now, while it might be difficult to "tag" everyone at a parade, the idea of promoting sales over the Internet is a valid one. ImageID takes this and "drills" down by using technology to target those most likely to buy a photo (i.e., right then and there)-point of purchase being powerful when combined with a talking box that pops up pictures of yourself as if by magic. It's always been about identifying your target audience and then selling to them, but through such technologies as ImageID, soon you'll be able to customize and sell in one-to-one relationships with the customer that just hasn't been possible before.

Marshal M. Rosenthal is a photojournalist based in Los Angeles, and a frequent contributor to many imaging and computer publications. He can be reached at marshalr@pipeline.com.