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The new Web service is one of over 40 new technologies and ideas displayed by Microsoft at its research department's annual TechFest fair on Tuesday.

Microsoft Research TechFest is the world's largest software maker's chance to show off the talent of its 750 global researchers, who are working on problems ranging from how to use sensors in medical science to how to view high-definition pictures through a Web browser.

The technologies and products on display are at various stages of development. Some are ready to be incorporated into existing products, while others are years away from finding the right application to utilise the technology.

The map-search technology required Microsoft to get millions of street-level pictures of Seattle's buildings and landmarks. Those pictures were added to a database and indexed by distinguishing features that can be cross referenced to pictures sent in by users.

Increasingly sophisticated mobile phones are becoming a popular device to search

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for maps, directions and other local information and Microsoft said the service is a logical next step.

'When you are using a mobile phone, then inputting text can sometimes be difficult. So we decided to make the camera the input,' said Xing Xie, a Microsoft researcher who was demonstrating the technology.

The service is still being tested at Microsoft and releasing the product on a wide scale could prove challenging since the company would need databases full of pictures of buildings in every city.

Other interesting demonstrations included a new Web security application that prevents automated computers from exploiting Internet sites with a quiz to distinguish whether the animal in a picture is a cat or a dog.

It would replace current verification systems that require users to look at an image of garbled text and type out a word or a series of numbers and letter.

Microsoft researcher John Doucher said it is easy for humans to decipher a cat from a dog, but computers running image-reading software often have trouble. This application is ready for use and available for Web developers at asirra.com.

Microsoft also showed off a new type of answering machine. Instead of a conventional machine that displays the number of messages, Microsoft's 'Bubble board' displays the messages in floating bubbles on a touch-screen monitor with the caller's picture inside.

Unlike current answering machines that play messages in chronological order, the Bubble board allows the user to choose whose message to hear first by touching the caller's message bubble.