There’s a lot to look forward to on Samsung’s Galaxy S8, but one of the more interesting additions is Samsung’s own AI assistant currently known as ‘Bixby.’ We already know a pretty good deal about what this assistant will be capable of, but according to an exclusive report from SamMobile, Bixby is going to be able to use the S8’s camera for visual search and text recognition as well.
Backing up a bit, Bixby is the result of Samsung’s recent acquisition of Viv, formerly known for its work in helping to create Siri. On its own, Viv’s software differentiated itself by having strong ties to third-party services and apps which Samsung will apparently leverage to fully control all of the native apps installed on a Galaxy S8.
What’s more interesting, though, is that Bixby on the Galaxy S8 will apparently be able to leverage the camera to identify things in the real world as well as use text recognition. According to the report, Samsung will add a Bixby button into the stock camera app on the S8 which will activate a search tool that can identify whatever object the camera is currently pointed at. Further, the assistant will also be able to use the camera to recognize text, but it’s unclear exactly what it will use that data for.
If that sounds familiar, well, it should. This is very similar functionality to what we saw in Google Goggles which could recognize objects and show relevant information. In the time since that functionality has been absorbed by Google Now which you can currently use.
Whether or not all of this comes true, we’ll have to wait and see. Samsung is rumored to debut the Galaxy S8 sometime in April and if the leaks so far are accurate, there’s a lot to be excited about…
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