August 28, 2018 Canon Australia uses Image Recognition to let photo exhibition visitors scan and purchase pictures

Photo by Tony Hewitt & Denis Glennon

The photo collection Girt by Sea, a collaboration by photographers Denis Glennon and Tony Hewitt and Canon Australia aimed to show the trip the two photographers did in a light Cessna aircraft, circumnavigating the island continent of Australia for 31 days.

The “girt by sea” expression included in Australia’s national anthem Advance Australia Fair had always fascinated Tony, who decided to undertake the adventure alongside Denis and capture all the images from both sides of the plane.

All those pictures taken from a bird’s eye view where narrowed down the most impressive 100 that better illustrate the beauty of the Australian coast. Presented for the first time in Australia’s capital city, in the Paddington Town Hall, this traveling exhibition is currently in Hyatt Gallery, in Sydney, until 4th September.

Girt by sea exhibition at Hyatt Regency.

A unique experience for a unique project

The long-cherished dream project of Tony received the support and sponsorship of Canon, leading global provider in the fields of professional and consumer imaging equipment.

When considering the exhibition, the main idea of Canon was to provide a special experience to visitors in order to better engage with them and create a smooth journey from the exposition to the online store, where visitors can purchase their favorite images to be printed and delivered to their home.

According to Nina Spannari, Assistant General Manager in Digital Area at Canon, the company was looking for a truly innovative way to showcase the extraordinary exhibitions planned.

The two photographers at the exhibition.

Shareable Apps integrates Catchoom’s Image Recognition for a phygital experience

Shareable Apps provided Canon with a special app, EventConnect™, powered by Catchoom’s Image Recognition (IR) technology, to allow visitors to snap the images in the collection with their phones to access different kinds of information. By downloading the app and taking a picture of a specific photo, they can directly retrieve information about the pictures, for example, how they were taken (exact place, dimensions, camera used, altitude, etc.), as well as access purchase links to acquire large-format copies of the works, reproduced in high detail.

The exhibition app that allows to scan the pictures.

Immersing the visitor into the photographer’s world

This innovative mobile feature can also help exhibitions track the adoption and engagement using the analytics provided. According to a Canon spokesperson, “the response from visitors has been very impressive”.

The tool has made the exhibition far more immersive and has served as an omnichannel path for visitors to access Canon website and purchase copies of the collection.

Catchoom’s superior Image Recognition capabilities

Catchoom’s Image Recognition solution, with 98% accuracy, is optimized for different lighting conditions, as well as different angles and distances. With a 20% higher accuracy than most competitors, the solution can be integrated in native and web apps and can endure high traffic and support collections of all sizes, even millions of images.