Exbiblio to take text capture concept to iPhone, Android

A local startup called Exbiblio has spent the past several years developing a device that can capture a string of words on a printed page and find the corresponding text on the internet. Now the company, whose founder Martin King was one of the minds behind Tegic's T9 predictive text software for mobile phones, is embarking on a new mobile strategy. Exbiblio is working on applications for the iPhone and Android smartphones -- the idea being that people can hold their phones over printed words and get linked to the corresponding digital article or website.

Exbiblio is talking up its iPhone/Android strategy at the Newspaper Association of America annual convention, underway now in San Diego.

King said the company aims to have one of the mobile applications, most likely for Android phones, to market in the next 6 to 12 weeks. He said Exbiblio hasn't given up on its original handheld scanner concept -- the "Qi" -- but saw an opportunity in the iPhone and Android platforms.

"We can't ignore the opportunity to deploy on phones and the sheer numbers will be compelling," said King. He said Exbiblio's technology -- by channeling print readers into web traffic and web sales -- could help the struggling newspaper industry.

King has personally bankrolled Exbiblio, to the tune of about $10 million, since the company launched in 2004. The startup, which was once based in Seattle's Pioneer Square, has since decamped to Vashon Island, and the staff has been whittled down from roughly a dozen to six today.

Here's a profile I did of the company -- and its unusual history and structure -- about two years ago. King founded Exbiblio with Cliff Kushler and Dale Grover, his T9 co-inventors (Kushler's startup Swype just raised $1.3 million in funding). Bill Valenti, another Tegic founder, is also an investor in Exbiblio.

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