LONDON – British supermarket and convenience giant Tesco has launched an app for Google Glass that uses image-recognition technology to provide shoppers with more product information and purchasing capability.

Created by the company’s in-house Tesco Labs research and development team, the Tesco Grocery Glassware app allows shoppers to browse the price of goods, view nutritional information and add items to their shopping basket hands-free, according to a report in Tech Week Europe. Users can either scan a product’s barcode for more information or to add to a basket, or perform a voice search before selecting the right product using the Glass headset.

The app links to a shopper’s Tesco.com account, automatically adding products to the customer’s online basket for them, which can later be reviewed and products ordered using a computer, tablet or mobile device. “We don’t envisage Glass becoming the new platform for shopping as its functionality is different, and more immediate,” Pablo Coberly, innovation engineer at Tesco Labs, told the publication. “Instead, it compliments other devices and integrates shopping into everyday life because products can be ordered or added as customers realize they need replacing.”

The company said that they have intentionally stayed with a very basic functionality to begin with, to get a better sense of customers’ reaction to the new technology.