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GAMES & GADGETS

AMAZON LAUNCHES PRODUCT MATCH SHOPPING APP

The Amazon shopping app is easy to navigate

Tuesday October 27,2009

By Emily Garnham for express.co.uk

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ONLINE retailer Amazon has launched a UK version of its free product match shopping app in time for Christmas.

It's most exciting feature - Amazon Remembers - which is already available in America allows iPhone and iTouch users to photograph any product and upload it to Amazon.co.uk website, where matching or similar products will be found.

Some products will be matched instantly, while others will be sent through to a team of humans who will source the item and email you back within minutes so you can compare prices.

Shoppers can then add the product to a wish list, make a purchase using Amazon's 1-click ordering technology, track packages and read customer reviews.

The creators told Express.co.uk that the app uses two kinds of technology - SnapTell’s automated image recognition service and the “artificial intelligence” of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk web service to interpret and respond to the queries.

They said: "SnapTell’s proprietary technology matches photos to products Amazon.co.uk sells. If the photo does not generate a clear match, The Mechanical Turk service finds a match.

"Turk also provides the mechanism for integrating human intelligence into software applications like this one that are trying to solve problems that humans can solve more effectively than computers, like finding specific objects in pictures, evaluating beauty, translating text or recognising tunes.

"Because Amazon Remembers uses human intelligence in conjunction with static algorithms and databases, the risk of misunderstanding users’ queries is minimised and the universe of questions that can be asked is virtually limitless."

Express verdict:

A good idea in principle, but the latest generation iPod Touch doesn't have an in-built camera yet, rendering this app pretty much redundant unless you own an iPhone.

But for high street shoppers on-the-go who want a swift price comparison, this is a useful tool considering the vast products for sale on Amazon.