I stumbled across a very interesting application for my phone the other day. I have often thought it would be neat to take a picture of something and get information on the subject.
With the CamFind application, you can. Find it at camfindapp.com. It retrieves information fairly accurately on many, but not all, things that can be photographed. It is built for iPhones, Android phones and Google Glass. (Why, since not many are out there?) You can find links to the perspective stores at the main site mentioned above.
Basically, it is a search engine based on pictures. When I first experimented with it I was in a local building and took a picture of the tiled floor at my feet. Yes, I know that it strange but I thought, “OK, let’s give it a try.” After a few seconds, it filtered through several words that could or could not describe the tile and came up with an almost identical floor. Not only that but it gave me links to other samples of the same or similar tiles and where I could purchase them.
I took a picture of a couple of Cardinals in our backyard (birds not religious leaders). After running through a series of related and non-related words (once it flashed “red strapless dress”) it found cardinals. It gave me links to similar pictures and sites with more information.
I tried a few more shots. I took a picture of the shoes I had on. They are beige slippers. It returned information on brown loafers. It is not perfect but will be getting better over time the more it is used.
Next, I moved to cars. I took a picture of a Jeep Grand Cherokee (in a parking lot so now I am on a watch list somewhere) and it told me it was a 2018. I am not sure about the date but it got the Jeep. I took one of my car. It recognized it as a Honda CR-V but it did not give the year…too old I am sure.
I will wrap this up after a couple of more examples. I got very close to my TV so that you could not see the border of the TV. I took a picture of an actor on the screen. The result was, ads for “flat-screen TVs.” My only guess is that it could tell by the slight pixelation.
My last experiment was food. I made a sandwich, took a few bites and took the shot. It filtered through and I thought it was going to settle on a” brown plush bear stuffed toy.” However, at the last second, it switched to “a slice of brown bread.”
OK, after my few examples I want you to go to your phone’s online store, download CamFind (or from the main site) and try it out today. For you purists who need a useful piece of tech this is not it, but who knows how it will work a year or two from now? At this time, it is for fun only and is not always that helpful. But hey, go have some fun!
