I write a lot about how I help my mother with her technology around the house.
This usually involves setting up something new or showing her how to use something she already has.
The last time we visited Mom, she taught me something about the iPhone that I hadn’t tried yet.
In fact, it was Mom’s neighbor who showed her how to take photos of plants with her iPhone and then use the info button below the photo to find out which plants are in the picture.
This feature is called Visual Look Up and it doesn’t just work on plants. You can also use it to photograph and identify popular landmarks, animals and more.
When the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad recognizes the subject of your photo, you’ll see a few small stars next to the info icon at the bottom of the screen.
The stars mean that something was detected in the photo. Touch the icon. The photo’s info screen will slide up, showing information about the date, time and location the photo was taken, as well as exposure information from the camera controls.
At the top of the information card you can see the Visual Lookup information.
I took some close-up photos of some roses in our front yard and the Photos app identified them as Damask roses and even directed me to some links where I could learn more about them and showed me photos of similar plants.
The visual look upward works best for clear close-ups.
I was also surprised at what other types of images could be identified.
I have a smoker at home and took a few close-up photos of some ribs I recently smoked.
The Photos app told me the photo contained food, and when I clicked the link, I was taken to a list of pages about smoking ribs with different recipes and methods.
Android users don’t miss out on this fun either.
Google has an app and feature called Google Lens that does the same thing. It lets you identify objects in your photos, including plants and places of interest. Google Lens can also search online stores. If you find a great pair of shoes, a close-up image will help you figure out where to buy them.
None of these technologies are perfect, and mistakes can happen, but I’m really impressed so far.
Jim Rossman is a tech columnist for Tribune News Service. He can be reached at [email protected].
