July 26, 2017 - 16:06 AMT
eBay announces Image Search for finding items using photos

With artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning seemingly permeating just about every facet of the online world, it comes as little surprise to learn that eBay has some similar tricks up its proverbial sleeves.

The ecommerce juggernaut has announced two new computer vision features that are coming to its online shopping emporium this fall, VentureBeat reports.

Computer vision enables machines to “understand” images by processing and analyzing them on a pixel-by-pixel basis, rather than leaning on human-generated categorization data, such as keywords and descriptions.

Using Image Search, eBay said that you will be able to snap a photo of a real-world object and use it to find similar items on eBay. Similarly, the company is also rolling out Find it on eBay, which allows you to tap items on any other website — for example on a blog or on Pinterest — and find them to buy through sharing the URL with eBay.

"Moments of shopping inspiration can come at any time, whether you’re walking down the street or browsing your social media feed,” said Mohan Patt, vice president of buyer experience at eBay. “At eBay, we’re focused on creating new complementary technology that helps our millions of shoppers easily find the things they love at the best value.”

Image Search will initially be available through the eBay app on both Android and iOS, though Find it on eBay will be limited to Android.

These new features come hot on the heels of a number of moves made by eBay to expand its AI capabilities — last may it bought out machine learning company ExpertMaker, then a few months later it snapped up computer-vision company Corrigon.