Now You Can Use Your IPhone to Identify Animals, Plants and Places of Interest
If you’ve ever wondered what plant you have on your desk or what breed of dog is jumping on you in the park right now, you don’t have to guess. This is not the 90s. In 2022, we have the technology to point our iPhones at mysterious objects and figure out what they are in seconds – you just need to know how to use it.
This feature is not something you have lived in the dark about for years. Apple only added it to its product suite last year with iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and macOS 12 Mojave. There are other hidden features that most of us don’t know about, like the ability to turn off family members’ alarms on the iPhone with your own iPhone , which have lived quietly in the iOS ecosystem for years, but Visual Look Up just doesn’t exist. one of them.
How to Find a Real World Object Using iPhone
The first thing you need to do is take a picture of the subject you are trying to learn more about, be it a plant, animal, or landmark. If you already have a photo of the item, that works too. Now open the image in the Photos app, then look for the star next to the (i) at the bottom of the screen (you may need to tap the image once for this option to appear).
If the (i) has an asterisk attached to it, it means the Photos app can use visual search for that image. If there is no star, then either the object cannot be identified or the image is not good enough to work with.
If there is a star, tap (i). Here you will see the typical advanced information options you would normally use, with one major difference: “Search”. Depending on the theme of the photo, you’ll see different icons and search names. For example, I took a picture of my dog and I see a paw print icon next to the word “Dog”. But that’s not all: Tap Search, and your iPhone will offer the most accurate guess for a dog’s breed. In my case, it was absolutely correct, so I can finally start telling people what kind of dog I have (ugh).
In your results, you’ll see both Siri Knowledge, which points to articles from sources like Wikipedia, and similar images of your subject. If you look at a landmark, you can also see its address, as well as contact information, if applicable.
While the most convenient use case for Visual Look Up is by far the iPhone, you can also use the feature on iPad and Mac. Sure, you’re more likely to take a quick photo of something on your iPhone than on your iPad (and who takes product photos on their Mac?), but if you already have an image on one of those other devices, the (i) button will help you learn more about it.
[ Tom’s Guide ]