Designed for 3.5G mobile phones, the system makes use of special image-recognition technology and software that can be downloaded to the phone. The user starts the program and then captures the graphic's image with the camera phone. The image is sent to a server database, where the graphic is processed and the corresponding song sample is streamed back to the phone.

J-Magic will market the system to record companies and advertising agencies.

In addition to song samples, the system can also be used to view promotional videos and to purchase songs.

Revolutionary? Yes, I thought so too. Surely this is the sort of application the UK market is desperate for. Not so, according to our expert witness, Dr Windsor Holden, principal analyst at
Juniper Research.

“The invention you refer to are QR codes. They've been around for some time and I'm a huge fan of them. It's a wonderfully simple, direct means for customers to access content without having the hassle of having to tap in short codes or search for a site on the mobile web,” he explains.

He says he's 'frankly astonished' that European vendors and operators haven't yet introduced them. “I keep bringing the subject up at virtually every event I attend,” says Holden, “but sadly while the companies are interested, there's been no commercial deployment as yet. A shame, because if you want to boost mobile content usage, then as far as I'm concerned it's a no-brainer. They have to bring this innovation across to Europe.”