IBM and Xing Inc., a subsidiary of Brother Industries, announced a partnership to design and develop wireless karaoke controllers, allowing users to search for songs and order food or drinks from their tables.

The two controllers, Kyoku-NAVI II and Kyoku-NAVIs, are designed to replace paper karaoke song catalogues traditionally found in restaurants, giving the customer easier navigation through thousands of songs.

The new product will allow customers to be freed from going through thick song catalogs and burdensome song number entry, Rob Thomas a director at IBM stated, making each karaoke customer's experience more enjoyable than ever before.

The key feature of Kyoku-NAVIs is the remote controller feature, that allows karaoke customers to select a song by name, by artist or from several genres from the controller's screen wirelessly. In addition, karaoke customers can access video content, and order food from the screen.

The device will be available in Japan starting early in November, the companies said.

Ibm