Usually when we think of visual search ( or image-to-image search), we tend to think of a text search that returns images that just happen to be titled or located near something like the text we are searching for. In an age of smartphones, 3D technologies, and new ways of interacting with technology, this feels outdated!
Even when we use an image to run an image search, at best we can expect to see other images with similar color schemes. Haven’t you found yourself wishing for a solution that actually looked for the object inside your image and found something that acutally looks visually similar? Good news! Visual search has designed a solution to help with this issue and is here to change the way we think about visual search.
This is the future of visual search and we are already living in it. The fast-expanding company Visual search, based in both California’s Silicon Valley, is delivering on the ability to “Search Visually” and has already implemented its innovative new visual search technologies to connect people to the furniture they want and pets they’ll love in two apps, LikeThat Pets and LikeThat Décor. Once you experience how works, you will be very impressed with where this technology can take the way we access information.
Visual search’s visual search does more than just look for the same shapes. Rather, it analyzes your pictures and attempts to understand the objects contained within them. To accomplish this, it breaks the item (or animal or anything else!) down into parts to help the search understand it as a real-world three dimensional object. Then it consults vast databases of images to locate and sort identical, and/or similar items according to your personal tastes.
Already, Visual search has released two apps that do just this. LikeThat Pets allows users looking to adopt a pet to snap a photograph of a dog or cat that they like. Instead of simply searching for the breed as many other databases rely on, Visual search’s visual search takes it to the next level. Using the process described above, the technology breaks down the image, understands what the dog or cat looks like, and matches that against a database of adoptable pets to find just the right match!
The recently released LikeThat Décor applies the same cutting-edge technological principles, but for furniture and home design ideas. Starting with a photograph—whether you’re snapping a shot of a catalog, using Pinterest, taking a picture at a consignment store, or sneaking a shot of your friend’s couch—Visual search’s app connects to a large database of furniture for sale from many designers and vendors, finding you variations and ideas that will help you decorate your home just as you want. Pets and furniture are just the beginning. This is certainly a technology that promises to be a real game-changer. Surely we can expect to see new ideas that continue to enhance the way we interact, organize, and access our world.