

SnapUp lets you shop on your iPhone by taking screenshots - satjot
http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/01/snapup-lets-you-go-shopping-track-prices-just-by-taking-screenshots-on-your-iphone/

======
satjot
If the tech just looks at the screenshot image, how does it have near full
coverage of mobile web but has to train/fingerprint apps?

~~~
ericgoldberg
Good question- with Safari, we use the visible domain to help score the
confidence for mobile websites. For native apps, we don't have any such "easy"
confidence boost. So we have to fingerprint the app based on different
features present in the image that is captured.

The system is computer vision / machine learning based, so even on novel
sites, it will get better over time with more usage and training. We've
trained it up for a bunch of the most popular sites already though.

Does this make sense?

~~~
dave84
Sounds impressive. Do you have a pre-existing product database that you match
them up to or do you just create products on the fly?

~~~
ericgoldberg
We do our own searching and wrote our own crawlers. Does that answer your
question?

~~~
dave84
It does indeed. I'm very impressed. Keep up the good work!

------
proletarian
Do I have to upload the pics manually?

~~~
ericgoldberg
No, it detects the screenshots as you take them. (I helped build the app)

~~~
tedmiston
So every screenshot I take on my iPhone is automatically imported into SnapUp
/ sent to your server?

~~~
ericgoldberg
No, we do some client-side prefiltering to ignore non-products, and we also do
some more extensive server-side filtering. We also allow you to cancel snap
processing, as well as go into an "Ignore new snaps" mode via the settings in
the app. Also, the upload only happens when the app is foregrounded, giving
you further control.

