

ShopSavvy Comes To The Iphone - Turn your Iphone into a Barcode Reader - keltecp11
http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2009/11/18/shopsavvy-comes-to-the-iphone/

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boredguy8
I didn't realize the iPhone didn't have such a tool. I installed ShopSavvy the
day I got my Droid, and I use it constantly.

More impressive, however, is Amazon's ability to find products based on a
photo.

Interestingly, neither ShopSavvy nor Amazon correctly identify the Michael
Crichton trade paperback "Prey" (both substitute a different product), but
Amazon immediately found it when I used the 'photo search'. It does very well
on book covers, even obscure/less popular ones. For instance, I got my Loeb
book identified in about 5 minutes. I'm waiting for it to identify a
highlighter (label visible), post-it notes, and Blistex (Label visible).
Properly identifying non-packaged goods will be amazing.

Edit: it's identified each of my products perfectly using the "take a photo"
so far. I haven't gone super obscure yet, but I haven't stayed just in the
mainline.

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mlinsey
The Amazon identify-by-photo feature uses Mechanical Turk (ie, real people).
Try taking a photo of a handwritten note with something like "show me a book
with an author whose name starts with K" (Nothing too complicated or tough to
solve-the pay is very low per hit)

This can occasionally lead to amusing results when you send in photos of
things which are not products, like people. A photo of a friend yielded the
Freaks and Geeks DVD, and a photo of myself brought back the book "Asian slim
secrets: the natural method for weight loss proven by billions of Asians" Note
that these results vary a lot by who takes the MT hit; usually a picture of a
face will yield something like a photo frame.

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boredguy8
I figured the not-immediate matches were Mechanical Turk. But it's pulling
results on some searches seemingly immediately after I snap the photo.

I'll have to try out your suggestions.

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zandorg
Some time ago, someone posted to HN a service that could basically find images
based on an input image. It worked very well, so it could be that.

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wastedbrains
It has had a barcode reader / price comparisons based on the barcodes for some
time now. <http://redlaser.com/> In fact it was the #2 selling iPhone app for
quite awhile.

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abyssknight
Not only that, having used both, RedLaser is by far better at scanning.

