Samsung is not launching the Galaxy S8 this month, but tidbits about the flagship phone’s specs and features are already spreading online like wildfire. This week, a new report is claiming that the Galaxy S7 successor’s camera will come with Bixby support.
Bixby is Samsung’s upcoming AI assistant that is rumored to match Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa in more ways than one. The intelligent assistant is rumored to launch with the ability to control all of Samsung’s native apps and even conduct mobile payments. Interestingly, there is new information claiming that a Bixby search tool will be integrated into the software that controls the Galaxy S8 camera.
This Thursday, SamMobile ran an exclusive story about the S8’s standard camera having a visual search and optical character recognition (OCR) tool powered by Bixby. What this means is the flagship phone’s camera will be able to analyze, identify and read objects and texts it sees through the lens. The search tool will scan objects and texts the phone camera is pointing at and data about these things will be presented to the user.
The technology sounds very familiar because Google’s Goggles app does a similar thing. However, Samsung intends to raise the bar higher by extending the scanning functionality to other applications. Therefore, users will not be limited to just identifying objects. They can also do more such as making purchases of objects they like with the help of Bixby.
In addition to the camera app support, there is also word that a dedicated button for Bixby can be found on the side of the Samsung Galaxy S8, as per AppleInsider. Unfortunately, the South Korea giant has yet to confirm anything at this point. While interested fans can treat these reports with a grain of salt for now, they’d be delighted to know that Samsung is already preparing its next flagship handset for its March 29 unveiling event.
