Samsung's Bixby, the assistant reportedly set to debut with the Galaxy S8, will be able to search for items based on what you point the camera at.
You may be wondering why you would need such a feature, but Bixby's image recognition capabilities will reportedly have a few different applications. Pointing the camera at an object could direct you to online retailers where you could buy the item. (Bixby will also reportedly be closely tied to Samsung Pay to facilitate mobile payments.)
Support for optical character recognition (OCR) could also enable Bixby to act as a digital scanner. Point the camera at some text and the assistant will be able to scan it into a digital format. Sure, there are plenty of standalone apps that have similar functionality but having this built into your camera could be particularly convenient.
While we still know little about Bixby, the assistant is the product of Samsung's acquisition of Viv, the AI startup founded by the creator of Siri. Viv shared few details about its technology prior to its acquisition, but a demo at Tech Crunch Disrupt last year was impressive enough to generate a lot of hype around the secretive startup.
Now, Sam Mobile cautions that Samsung is still developing software for the assistant, so some of the final features could change ahead of the S8's launch, which is expected to happen in the spring.
But, the latest report, combined with Viv's credentials and a previous report that indicates Bixby will also be able to control all of the S8's native applications, hint that Samsung's assistant is shaping up to be one of the more powerful assistants out there.
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