Smartify, the Shazam for Images, Now Includes that Statue You’re Curious About

One stepping stone to the internet of things is the app store of stuff. what stuff? Terminator vision! Which is to say, the ability to look at anything and get a little read out about what that might be. Things like this are coming in in waves, there are words on the page but you can’t tell what they are saying, which is why there are instant translator apps that turn the written word into your preferred language.

More commonly, there is Shazam, that app that lets you identify a song that’s playing if everyone would just shut up for a second. Last year, Smartify presented itself as the visual version of that-a bandaid on the gaping wound in our souls left by Google Glass (oh hideous gizmo, we hardly knew ye).  Basically you point your phone’s camera at a work of art and the app tells you what it is.  This works in most of the world’s top museums: the Hermitage, the Met, the Rijksmuseum, even the Cloisters with all those unicorn tapestries. (You know know where the unicorn tapestries are).

The app is free on Apple and Google devices, so you have no excuses, just the opportunity to fool people on tours into thinking you know what you are talking about.