The Supply Side: Supplier unveils new photo service linked to Wal-Mart

Holoma Inc., a product development consultant group in Miami, has partnered exclusively with Wal-Mart Stores on a new interactive photo service dubbed U4D-iT for this holiday season.

U4D-iT.com uses advanced image recognition technology that allows consumers to create interactive photo cards and gifts that play a related video.

For example consumers can design a Christmas card featuring a photo of children who then come to life decorating their Christmas tree with the imposed video, according to the company release.

"Seeing a photo come to life like this is magical," said Ken Haffner, CEO of Holoma Inc. "With the readily available video and photo technology on mobile phones, we thought, why not connect the two for an engaging experience. And, without altering the photo in any way we can bridge the gap between still photography and video.”

U4D-iT.com offers consumers the ability to digitize their photos. When a photo and a related video are uploaded on the site, the 4D technology links the two, creating a 4D photo. When the photo is scanned with the free, integrated mobile app, the video plays and can be shared across social media networks to more friends and family members.

Haffner said a unique feature of this interactive technology is that the photo is transformed into a 4D photo without being altered or changed in any way. There are no stickers, QR code or necessary cropping to deface the photo.

The U4D-iT service is performed via a free mobile app which must be downloaded. The cost of the service to generate the video that coordinates with a photo when scanned is a one-time fee of $9.96.

The link to Wal-Mart is that the retailer offers a wide range of photo keepsake items that can used in conjunction with the U4D-iT.com service, according to the Walmart.com photo website and U4D-iT.com.

Haffner said the same digital photo uploaded to U4D-iT.com can also be uploaded in-store at the Walmart Photo kiosk or online at Walmart’s Photo Center to use in creating scannable holiday cards and gifts. The company said it hopes to connect families across the miles this holiday with the new digital photo service.

U4D-iT unveiled this new service in time for holidays in part because Americans are expected to send some 1.6 billion Christmas and holiday greeting cards this year and digital forms of card giving are more popular as smart phone ownership is now roughly 60% of the U.S. adult population, according to Pew Research. Also, 42% of U.S. adults own tablets. The average family still spends roughly $36 per year on Christmas cards and postage.

Christmas Cards appeared in the U.S. in the late 1840s, but were expensive and most people couldn't afford them. That was until 1875, when Louis Prang, a printer from Germany started mass producing cards. In 1915, John Hall and two of his brothers created Hallmark Cards, which is still one of the biggest card makers in the U.S.