This month on Bing: Visual Search expanded, Education, American Sign Language, and more

We’re excited to announce several new features this September at Bing.

Back in June 2018, we launched Visual Search to let you search what you see. Built on the Intelligent Image Search technology already in Bing, Visual Search allows you to search, shop and learn more about the world through the photos you take or images you see.

Now, we are expanding on these prior capabilities by adding Text Transcription, updates to the Visual Search dialog box, and Math Solver—which allows you to solve complex equations by simply taking a photo. As part of Bing’s continued focus on providing educational resources, we’ve also expanded Bing’s educational capabilities to include interactive sections in math, science, and languages including American Sign Language (ASL).

Finally, for our NFL fans out there, we’ve added contextually specific, nuanced answers on a huge variety of past games just in time for football season. 

All of these features are added with the intention of saving you valuable time whether by helping you quickly search using an image, transcribing text in an instant, or learning something new on the fly. 
 

Math Solver 

 

Ever needed help solving a tough math problem? Or when helping a loved one with homework —would you know where to start? 

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Released this past month on iOS and coming soon on Android, Math Solver allows you to solve mathematical equations, including calculus, by taking a picture and tapping the “Math” button located in the bottom menu between “Auto” and “Barcode.” Math Solver will solve the equation with a step-by-step explanation and will also connect you to related online videos, such as Kahn Academy lectures, to help you grow your mathematical knowledge. 

 

Text Transcription 

 

In addition to using Visual Search for identifying objects, finding similar images, finding similar products for purchase, and even solving math problems, Visual Search will allow you to quickly copy and search the text you see directly through your camera. You can take a picture of a phone number to call it directly, add an email to your contacts list, visit a website, navigate to an address, or simply copy/paste text. 

Have you ever been in a restaurant and found a dish you can’t pronounce… or identify? Snap a pic, tap the menu text and search. Need to copy that annoyingly long serial number or transcribe a website URL without typing? We have you covered. Stay tuned for Text Transcription rolling out on iOS in the next few weeks. 

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Search Faster Using Images

 

Based on user feedback, we’ve now made searching via image on Bing.com easier than ever by redesigning the Visual Search dialog box, which you can find after clicking on the Bing Image tab. The more intuitive design now allows for dragging and dropping an image, either from Bing or your computer’s desktop, directly into the image box to search in a snap. You can also copy and paste an image directly into the box in addition to a URL or take a picture directly by using your computer’s camera. 

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We hope these improvements help to make visual search an intuitive and easy tool for your everyday life.

 

Bing Education Carousel

 

As kids head back to school, we know that homework time can be stressful for parents. In addition to Math Solver, Bing has released a full suite of math, science, and language tools to make learning easy for parents and students. Many of these experiences feature step-by-step instructions and quizzes to help with memory and retention. Next time you want to learn a popular topic quickly, search for “Education on Bing” or try specific topics like “Solar System,” “Fraction Calculator,” and “Language Translator.” 

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American Sign Language (ASL) on Bing

 

In the spirit of empowering every customer and enabling learning across diverse groups, the Bing team has also created a “Sign Language” experience. The experience contains 159 videos of words and 13 phrases in American Sign Language (ASL), uniquely catered towards a growing audience of students learning sign language in schools. While the experience currently has trained interpreters signing in the videos, the Bing team is working towards an even more authentic experience featuring people from the deaf community. 

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With September being National Deaf Awareness Month, we invite all our users to grow their knowledge of ASL. Next time you want to communicate across a loud room, communicate with someone who signs, or simply learn something beautiful, visit Bing.com on desktop or mobile and search for "sign language."

 

Intelligent Answers for NFL 

 

The start of the school year also means the start of football season, and now whether you are a Fantasy Football rising star or simply an NFL aficionado, Bing has you covered with in-depth, context-specific information on every NFL game ever played. 

After painfully seeing your team’s quarterback sacked, have you ever wondered which quarterback was intercepted the most last year?  Or when your team is down by a few points with five minutes remaining, do you wonder which team scored the most touchdowns in the last five minutes in 2017?  Who was the NFL rushing yards leader in the 4th quarter of the 2015 playoffs? 

Bing can now reason over the detailed NFL statistics of every game since 2000 and instantly crunch the numbers to summarize the answer to your question that’s concise and presentable.  Download the Bing mobile app for iOS or Android and see for yourself.

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We value your feedback


We hope you’re as excited about these features as we are! As always, we truly value your perspective, and one of the best ways for you to provide it is via the Bing Insider Program, which gives our most passionate users the opportunity to provide feedback to Bing engineers and partner teams via monthly calls, Insider events, interactive feedback sessions, and more.

Please register at the Bing Insider site to be a Bing Insider. And even if you don’t join today, the website is chock-full of great content featuring our Insiders as well as new Bing features. We hope you enjoy the new site and come back often.

- The Bing Team