Amazon.com this morning released a new iPhone application with a feature that promises to help people find new items by letting them snap and submit photos of stuff they already own.

The app also handles the basics -- letting iPhone and iPod touch users browse and purchase products from Amazon.com and affiliated retailers. But the unusual twist is the experimental "Amazon Remembers" feature that tries to match photos taken by shoppers with items in the Amazon.com catalog.

In the New York Times Bits Blog, Brad Stone explains how it works:

The tool lets users take a photograph of any product they see in the real world. The photos are then uploaded to Amazon and turned over to the far-flung freelance workers in Amazon’s Mechanical Turk program, who will try to match them with products for sale on Amazon.com. The results will not be instantaneous (between 5 minutes and 24 hours, the company says), but the idea is to entice consumers to buy products from Amazon instead of its offline rivals.

I happen to be in the market for a new barbecue, so I just downloaded the app on my iPhone and used it to snap a photo of my old one, then submitted it for review. Should be interesting to see what comes back, and how quickly. I'll update this post with the details.

If anyone else gives it a try, let us know how it goes.