The music-crazy Japanese now have another way to use their handsets to buy tracks and otherwise engage with their favorite recording artists: through their cameras. The mobile entertainment company Bandai Networks has launched a service that lets people take a photo of a CD cover or a poster, send that image to Bandai, and then receive a message back that provides more information on the product and links to buy it. Release (in Japanese).

The service works as a visual-Shazam of sorts, using optical recognition software provided by Evolution Robotics to pick up patterns and match them up with a content database. Bandai has teamed up with the Japanese mobile music powerhouse Label Mobile to start the service with some 150,000 CD covers. (Label Mobile is a joint venture that encompasses the country’s largest music labels, including EMI, Sony Music, Universal Music, Yamaha and Avex, and it runs all of these labels’ mobile commerce activities related to ringtones and full-track downloads and other music services.)

According to the Japan’s Cellphone Edge blog, the service is currently only available to DoCoMo users. If the service proves popular, it could provide a boost to the operator, which is still the country’s largest provider with 37.85 subscribers to its FOMA 3G service, but is seeing some of its base seep over to other providers. Last month, Softbank reported 204,800 new mobile phone subscribers in June and KDDI said it added a net 133,200 users; DoCoMo added 88,800.

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