Last year Samsung’s acquisition of AI startup Viv lead many to speculate that the company was working on its own rival to AI assistants Siri and Cortana.
Samsung seemed to confirm the development this month when ‘Bixby’, the rumoured name of the upcoming assistant, was spotted on the company’s Samsung Pay website.
And while details remain scarce, it seems Bixby will be more useful than its main rival Siri, if a new trademark filing is anything to go by.
Related: MWC 2017
Following reports that Bixby would work with the Galaxy S8‘s front and rear cameras in some capacity, Samsung has filed a trademark in Europe for something called ‘Bixby Vision’.
It’s a strong hint that the company is indeed planning to make its digital assistant work with its upcoming flagship’s cameras, with SamMobile reporting that the feature will see the camera’s used to conduct ‘visual searches’.
Samsung looks to have big plans for Bixby, which seems as though it will be able to process payments, control native apps, and work with other devices such as fridges and washing machines.
The visual scanning feature also gives it an edge over Google Now and Siri, and while we’re not entirely sure how it will work, it certainly has us excited to see how Samsung will try to outdo its competitors this year.
According to SamMobile, the Bixby visual feature will see a Bixby button added to the camera app on the Galaxy S8 which will allow the phone to process whatever the camera is being pointed at.
The assistant will then reportedly perform a search based on the object in the frame, or process any text the camera viewfinder is pointed at.
There’s no concrete information from Samsung at the moment, however, so for now apply the usual caution when considering these claims.
WATCH: Samsung Galaxy S8
Let us know what you want to see from Bixby in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
