3 On Your Side: Picture Perfect Way To Shop
By Jim Donovan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's the picture perfect way to purchase everything from clothes to light bulbs. 3 on Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan shows you the latest way to buy exactly what you want, in a snap.
"A lot of times, I'll find, I'll see things in, like, a magazine or an ad, so I'll go and try to look that up and it can be kind of difficult to find," says online shopper Sandra Bohlken. When she learned that she could buy directly from an ad just by snapping a photo, she tried it out.
The 'in a snap' app is Target's newest move to attract mobile-minded shoppers. Simply download the app, and when you see the app icon on specific ads in magazines or in a stores, just take a picture and buy right then and there. According to Bohlken, "It takes a picture of the entire ad and so then I have an option of all the different things in the ad."
Eddie Baeb is with Target, he says, "I think, clearly, technology is changing the way we shop, whether it's image recognition, visual search, augmented reality, these are all things we're testing."
At Heels.com you can input an image of must-have shoes, and a visual search tool will either match the product exactly, or bring up look-a-likes. Apple has the 'CamFind' app, which recognizes and describes items, and Google was in the forefront of the recognition game with its Google Goggles app.
Amy Curtis is a Google Goggles user. She says, "I use it to compare prices, I use it to search the internet for pictures and art." There are limitations: sometimes recognition tools are slow and they can't identify everything, at least not yet. Google Goggles for example is better at recognizing things like books, landmarks and products, but not great at identifying apparel.
Even so, Curtis says, "I'll continue using the app; I use it a lot, so it's kind of become second-hand," while Bohlken says, "It can make shopping a lot easier."
For more information visit the links below:
In A Snap:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/in-a-snap/id879596104?mt=8
Heels.com
http://www.heels.com/visual-search
Google Goggles:
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/166331?hl=en
Apple CamFind:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/camfind-search-qr-reader-price/id595857716?mt=8
