Facebook is boosting the company’s AI capabilities by acquiring a startup that let you lookup furniture products via a smartphone’s camera.
Before it shut down, the startup GrokStyle specialized in visual search to help consumers find retail items like a stylish chair or table. Rather than try and type some text describing the item, you could instead snap a photo of the object you’d like to buy. Grokstyle would then process the image over an app, recognize the item inside, and find the same or similar product for you to order online.
“We are excited to welcome GrokStyle to Facebook,” Facebook spokeswoman Vanessa Chan told PCMag in a statement on Friday. “Their team and technology will contribute to our AI capabilities.”
The social network hasn’t disclosed the acquisition price or elaborated on how it’ll use the startup’s technology. But the purchase may mean Facebook is attempting to improve the search functions on its Marketplace platform, where users can post classified ads, including furniture sales.
It’s also possible Facebook could use the search technology to help retail advertisers connect to more potential customers over the social network. Users could upload photos of products they’d like to buy and in return Facebook could point them to the right vendors.
GrokStyle itself hasn’t said much about the acquisition. Last year, the startup replaced its website with a notice that said it was “moving on as a team,” but it made no mention of GrokStyle joining Facebook.
“We are incredibly proud of what we have built — and believe we have only scratched the surface of what is possible with computer vision,” the startup said in the notice.
Facebook is buying GrokStyle at a time when the company’s rival Google has also been expanding into visual search with an app called Google Lens. It too can let you conduct online searches via the smartphone’s camera and even help you find matching items you’d like to buy.
Companies across the industry have also been developing new ways to shop. This includes experimenting with augmented reality over smartphones to help you place virtual models of the furniture you want to buy in your home, so you can tell if a couch or table you like fits or not.