Fans at the Indy 500 this weekend and elsewhere will be able to receive real-time race alerts, downloads, Indy Car sounds, and wallpaper through ActiveSymbols MobilePromote.

The promotion, which starts today, aims to highlight the potential of mobile handsets to link consumers to brand-specific content, according to ActiveSymbols and its partner motorsports publisher Haymarket Worldwide (IndyCar Series & Racer magazines). ActiveSymbols says it selected the Indy 500 to debut these capabilities for a mass audience because Logicalis, its parent company, is a sponsor of the Rahal Letterman race team and driver Danica Patrick.

Those who sign up will also receive alerts for the opportunity to receive discounts to the sponsor magazines, downloads, ringtones, games, access to other contests and more.

MobilePromote is one a number of new capabilities developed by ActiveSymbols to turn camera phones into visual search engines. These handsets, while still extremely popular, have proven a disappointment to consumers and carriers. They simply don't measure up to today's digital cameras for end users, while operators have found that subscribers aren't messaging those pictures as much as they would have liked.

Through its "visual search" technology, ActiveSymbols bets it can make embedded cameras in phones not just more useful and profitable, but fun.

Part of the Indy 500 promotion includes directions on how to send a person's picture to the ActiveSymbols MorphMe application and put a face in Danica Patrick's Helmet. With MorphMe, users can take a picture of themselves or another, which can then be 'morphed' into something else.

ActiveSymbols President Jeff Reed says, "Our mobile consumer platform is designed to link mobile consumers who care about events like the Indy 500 with media outlets and brand marketers to provide new touch points to consumers who are interested in the specific events like racing. We also see a green field of opportunity for mobile carriers and content providers."

Haymarket publisher Ian Havard could see the potential benefits of the partnership right away. "ActiveSymbols has the ability to communicate real-time with our target audience in new ways. The fact that we can push up-to-the-minute race day alerts and promotions to Indy 500 fans is huge for us. We've never been able to do that before and we're excited to hear how well it works from race fans," he explained.

Additional ActiveSymbol products include SymbolSearch, which supports consumer-directed mobile advertising in a variety of forms; by enabling retailers and advertisers to drive the purchase of digital content, such as songs, movie trailers, ring tones, wallpaper and games through the acquisition of brands and images by consumers via their camera phones, and onePic CRM, which is used to save and organize copies of important documents while traveling.