Asos adds search-by-photo to its fashion ecommerce app

Computer vision continues to find its way into all sorts of apps as the underlying tech powering convenience-oriented image searches. Latest -- and it must be said late -- to the party is fashion ecommerce player Asos, which has just added a visual search feature to its iOS app. The update lets iOS users snap a photo of a garment or fashion accessory with their device camera or pull in an existing outfit shot or Instagram screengrab (say) from their camera roll and have the app show clothes items that are at least in the general fashion ballpark of whatever it is they're trying to find. Asos says the visual search will be rolled out to their Android app "soon". The company says 80 per cent of UK traffic for ASOS comes from a mobile device, as do almost 70 per cent of UK orders -- with consumers spending 80 minutes per month on average in the app.