According to a new application the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published this week, Apple may be working on bringing voice-based photo search to Siri. The patent, “Voice-Based Image Tagging and Searching,” describes the ability of searching photographs on a device via text strings associated, such as tags, said AppleInsider, which discovered the filing this week (the patent was submitted back in March, but only just published by the USPTO).
Apple has already implemented a new way for users to sort photos in iOS 7 based on info such as date and location. The patent suggests that Siri will be able to search through that information for photos, but also that photo tagging in iOS 7 could become more advanced in the future updates, such as searching by activity or voice tagging, or tagging similar photos based on face or object recognition.
“The proposed invention could even automatically tag corresponding photos, based on the time and location at which they were snapped, to make it easier for users to sort their pictures and not require them to individually tag each picture,” AppleInsider wrote.
As with all patents, there’s no ETA on when it would show up, nor does it suggest it would show up at all. But it gives a glimpse on how photos and Siri could evolve in future versions of iOS.
(Via AppleInsider)
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