The Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone hits stores today, and Amazon fans will notice a familiar experience.
The smartphone comes with Amazon’s visual search technology, which can identify items, instantly look up reviews and give people the option to buy on Amazon, built in. It is the first time Amazon’s visual search technology has been available outside the Amazon app on a third party device.
Here’s how it works: Users open up the smartphone’s digital assistant Bixby and then point it at a product or barcode and tap on the shopping cart underneath the image. That will bring up numerous options, including the ability to purchase on Amazon.
Amazon says its visual search technology can recognize hundreds of millions of items, and it is adding more all the time. The camera search technology dates back to 2009 and uses a mix of computer vision and deep learning techniques to identify items and barcodes.
Amazon has steadily added to its camera search tech over the years. Last holiday season it added a new feature that lets people see inside packages. That’s not to be confused with the Amazon Web Services X-Ray service that allows developers to debug their distributed applications.
