TvTak will tag videos, Shazam style

Pretty soon you won’t have to wonder where you’ve seen that actor on the telly before – new app TvTak recognises what’s on your screen, tagging videos Shazam-style to tell you what you’re watching.

Fire up the TvTak app, point your smartphone’s camera at a video and it’ll tell you what you’re seeing – handy if you want to find out the source of a clip in one of those YouTube compilation videos.

But that’s not all it does – because TvTak locks on, like an AR app, and is open source it could potentially be used for interactivity within videos. That means it’ll be popular with advertisers, as they’ll be able to use it to serve up ads as you watch.

We like the idea of pointing our phone at, say, The Amazing Spider-Man and pulling up Andrew Garfield’s IMDB profile. Advertising, not so much. But with TvTak’s potential for sports and news interactivity we’re excited. Check out the video to see more or download the TvTak SDK now before the actual app hits Android and iOS soon.

You may also like

Dishonored hacks, slashes and shoots its way onto your screen

Pixar trains robots in the art of etiquette

BlackBerry to get Windows 8?

Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home