Amazon’s A9 search subsidiary this morning released a new iPad app called Fabulous that uses visual search technology to help people find shoes based on preferred shapes.
The app lets users browse for shoes by category or keyword. Amazon’s technology can then automatically display other shoes in shapes similar to the one the user finds, filtering the results by price, size and color.
This can be useful, for example, if a user likes a particular shoe but not the available colors. The app automatically shows other shoes with similar shapes to provide more options. It also works in the inverse: If a user likes a particular shoe color but not the shoe, the app can show other shoes in the same color, but in different shapes and styles.
The free app, available here, hooks into Amazon.com’s purchasing system. It’s part of a broader visual search initiative inside A9 that also includes the Flow augmented reality and visual recognition product search app.
