Smart Mirrors and Image based searches - the world is going visual

It all started in 2007 with MS Windows choosing the visually appealing graphical ribbon interface in its Office Products in place of the drop-down style text based interface. Using icons in place of text - a major change. The logic was that icons and visuals are not restricted by language barriers.

Slowly the trend has been gaining popularity. Check any online shopping site or app - the images are the key to inducing buyers to shop online. So they worked on an app for shopping malls - for people to virtually try clothes before buying them (http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2013/03/03/what-you-see-is-what-you-wear-augmented-online-shopping-mall/)). 

Then Fitle came up with the idea of creating a 3D avatar for yourself - to check if the colour and sizes suit you and how (http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/04/fitle-will-let-you-try-clothes-on-a-3d-avatar-of-yourself/). The idea is to team up with shopping malls and stores and use their database to provide customers an easy to use app for shopping, where they can try the clothes on their avatars first. 

Another pathbreaking idea is that of Smart Mirrors in a mall that lets you change the colour of your clothes, try different clothes, take snaps and send it to friends for opinion - all of it virtually, before buying the actual product (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2906563/The-end-fitting-room-queues-Smart-mirrors-lets-virtually-try-clothes-order-drinks.html).

Not much of this is available for free in the public domain. But Flipkart is now trying to launch its Image Search feature on the app. Currently in beta stage, the feature will allow users to click pictures of products they like and find similar products on the store. Sounds cool; but we will have to wait for the actual launch to see the real time results (http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/flipkart-set-to-introduce-image-search-feature-to-mobile-app/)

Google is also working on a feature where a person can click images of food (in restaurants) and it will map the location and suggest linking the image with the establishment. Food review sites like Zomato will love something like this. This will be first rolled out to people who are a part of Google's local guides program, conditions attached (http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/google-is-testing-a-new-feature-to-allow-adding-food-images-to-maps-278860.html).

So from words to images - we are moving rapidly towards the visual space. Even when it comes to blogs, articles, education, more and more people are depending upon visual inputs to emphasize and explain. And it is more effective too. This is a good theme for businesses to build themselves upon.