Amazon's New Tool Helps You Find the Right Screw

Amazon's Part Finder app uses computer vision and user input to find the right part to finish your project.

Full Frame Shot Of Nuts And Bolts
Georgiy Lyamin / EyeEmGetty Images

There are few things more frustrating than working on a project and coming up one screw short of getting the job done. Now Amazon has a solution for that problem: a smartphone app that recognizes whatever part you’ve got and shows you exactly where to buy it on its website. This new feature comes as a mostly-unpublicized change to the company’s iPhone app.

If you’ve got a small part like a screw, bolt, nut, or other fastener you want identified, just open the Amazon app on your iPhone and navigate to the camera. Place the object on a white surface next to a penny for scale, and use the Part Finder function to take a picture. Amazon’s AI will determine what part you have.

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The AI isn’t perfect, and will probably need to ask you a few follow-up questions to help it identify what you’ve got, but it should eventually give you what you’re looking for. Currently, the app can identify more than 100 types of fasteners, which represents potentially millions of different individual parts. Amazon is planning to add even more parts in the future, along with hopefully an Android version.

All you'll have to do is twiddle your thumbs until the part arrives.

Source: Techcrunch

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