Scan and Identify Artwork with Smartify
A picture recognition app for paintings, drawings, sculptures, and other works of art is in its final stages of production. It allows users to scan a piece, keep an electronic replica of it, and download information about it. The app’s name is Smartify.
This new app will premiere in many famous museums, the Louvre and Wallace Collection among them, sometime in May of this year. Although each participating institution has image recognition systems of their own, Smartify will cover more ground, allowing users to download only one app for thousands of different art pieces. It even draws information from exact photocopies of original works.
All of this was possible for the creators of Smartify due to the predesigned individual apps of each museum; this new app simply collects the data and stores it in one place. After that, it’s as simple as correctly pairing the storage photo with the phone photo.
While the Google-owned app Art Project offers digital visits of famous museums, Smartify searches its data collection in real time when users visit galleries in person. The real difference exists in the overall experience of each app, and Smartify currently has the upper hand.
To help with marketing strategy, every participating museum will gain access to each user’s original location and which pieces they observe the most, all in an anonymous fashion, to get a better understanding of their target audience. Smartify’s developers are keeping their fingers crossed for more artists to make their pieces public so they can be used and promoted through the app.
The biggest issue with releasing this new app is the expected increase in smartphone use during museum visits. For the majority of visitors, galleries are a tranquil, electronic-free experience, and if Smartify is successful, it could very well disrupt that principle.
Problems aside, the new image recognition app is definitely interesting, and while it may hinder gallery visits for some, it will enhance the experience for others.
