Persona is one of the latest fashion magazines in Tokyo. It’s printed on heavy stock paper and is full of photos of models and clothing. The only thing missing is text.

You “read” Persona with a smartphone camera.

An app recognizes the images, queries a cloud database and then downloads related information such as pricing and availability of dresses. Other photos feature images of tomatoes and wine, triggering a related vegetable delivery service and wine retailer, as well as online coupons.

NEC’s Gaziru image-recognition software is being used to link the cloud database to both the online edition of the quarterly magazine and its print version, which is to be distributed to 10,000 beauty salons across Japan next year. The app and the magazine launched earlier this month, with 18 companies participating.

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