Snapchat wants to show you ads based on what's in your images

Snapping an image of a coffee mug? How about adding a filter with a Starbucks logo to really complete the picture?

That sort of scenario may soon be possible on Snapchat, according to a patent application the company filed in January of last year. 

The document, made public last week and first spotted by Business Insider, details the social network's potential plans to offer special filters based on the objects its technology is able to recognize in a given image.  

For instance, the company explains, a shot of the Empire State Building might trigger the option of a filter in which King Kong is hugging the tower, swatting at airplanes with a victim in hand.

Such a filter could change angles depending on where you are standing in relation to the structure and include animations or sound effects, the application says.

But the company's ambitions don't end at playful landmark toppers; there's also money to be made in identifying the subject matter of your photos. 

Maybe a photo of a soup bowl at a restaurant could prompt a coupon for another menu item or a rundown of nutritional information, Snapchat proposes. Restaurants could even offer the digital equivalent of a coupon punch card, where a certain number of snaps of a particular product would win the Snapchatter a reward.

Much like Google's AdWords program, in which businesses can advertise around a particular search term, Snapchat imagines advertisers bidding on ads for specific everyday objects. The company claims it could also plug the system into its new advertising API (application program interface) so that brands could more easily buy the ads with third-party software.

Snapchat is currently only able to offer this type of photo overlay — known as a geofilter — based on your phone's location.

Given that Snapchat has already built image recognition technology into the search function of its new Memories update, the proposal seems at least plausible. However, as with all patents, there's always a chance the outlined technology will never be realized.

Snapchat declined to comment for this article.

Other online advertising giants like Facebook and Google are also racing to recognize and catalog the content of the huge troves of photos hosted or indexed on their respective sites. But Snapchat's integration of ads into its users' photos and videos sets it apart from most of its competitors.

The company, currently valued at nearly $18 billion, is looking to boost revenue to as much as $500 million to $1 billion per year by next year with a slew of new ad products, including its new API.