Edward Collins 
Dec 07, 2023
What if today we tell you about an iPhone-exclusive, nifty feature that’s been dwelling behind some walls of your iPhone’s secretive settings? The feature is Visual Look Up.
Visual Look Up on iPhones is a feature that allows you to get more information about objects or scenes by using the device's camera. It is typically linked with the Photos app.
Read more: Here’s why iPhone is suitable for people with special needs
Here’s how Visual Look Up works
To use Visual Look Up, you can take a photo or select an existing photo from your gallery. The iPhone then uses machine learning and computer vision algorithms to identify objects, animals, plants, landmarks, and more within the image.
It provides information about what is in the photo by leveraging data from the internet.
Ways to use Visual Look Up
You can use Visual Look Up for the following reasons:
1. Object Recognition
Visual Look Up helps you identify objects and provides information about them, giving users more context about what they are looking at.
Identify pets
Identifying pet species was a hassle, but not any more thanks to Visual Look Up. You can do this pretty quickly and learn about the cat or dog you randomly saw on the roadside and took a photo of. What's more impressive is that it can identify and give you information about mixed breeds of animals.
It works well with most mixed dog breeds. However, in the case of mixed cat breeds, it generally gives you the name of the breed with which the cat appears to resemble the most.
Identify foods and get recipes
Another usage of Visual Look-Up that you can benefit from is identifying foods and finding their recipes.
Visual Look Up does well with recognising dishes. In case you want to try making it yourself, Visual Look Up also pulls up multiple recipes, so you can choose a recipe that you think would work well for you based on factors like ingredients, calories, or required cooking time.
Learning about Landmarks
It can recognise famous landmarks and provide details and background information. Visual Look Up is useful for you if you are prone to explore new places.
You can use it to gather information about a statue, building, or landmark you plan to visit. It comes in handy when you want to learn about a place or landmark in a photo you captured previously.
Recognise plants and flowers
Whether you're a gardening enthusiast or simply curious about plants and flowers, coming across unfamiliar species is common. The Visual Look Up feature simplifies identification and provides additional details. Once a plant or flower is recognised, you can tap on it to access more information about its species.
Quick Information Retrieval
It offers a convenient way to quickly access information about the world around you without the need for manual searches.
Identify warning lights in your car
Car manufacturers display warning lights on the dashboard to alert you about potential problems with your vehicle. However, these warning symbols are not easy to crack for a layman and can take a lot of time to find in the car manual, which negates their purpose in the first place.
But this problem gets sorted out with Visual Look Up. Just take a picture of the warning lights in your car, and it will give you a brief explanation of what each of them means.
