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Google adds note-taking to Android image recognition app
2011-05-09 Article Rating:  / 0
Google has added features to its Google Goggles visual recognition software for Android intended to make it more user friendly. Google Goggles 1.4 for Android adds note-taking capabilities, offers improved search history, and has better business card recognition, the company says.
On May 9, Google added better search history and business card recognition to Google Goggles, as well as results sharing, lending some personal touches. Google Goggles is a visual search application that allows users to snap pictures of objects with the cameras from their Android smartphone or Apple iPhone. The app is still fairly limited in its scope of its recognition capabilities. However, it can sometimes recognize landmarks, as well as two-dimensional objects such as books, CD covers, and paintings. An early January upgrade even claimed to add Sudoku puzzle recognition.   Goggles 1.4 lets users tap the pencil icon in the upper right (left) to make a note about an image (right) (Click on either to enlarge) In keeping with Google's effort to socialize its company's myriad web services, Goggles 1.4 for Android devices now lets users search their past Goggles results, add notes on those results, and share them with friends. Notes will appear in a user's search history so they can view what they wrote later. The notes feature, which users can test by tapping the pencil in the corner when viewing a search result, should prove extremely useful when Google improves its product recognition for Goggles. For example, consumers will be able to browse clothing in a retail store, and snap a picture of an item they're interested in but not committed to buying. They can then write a note about what they liked and didn't like for later reference to help in their purchase decision making. Later, they can check their search history for words in their note to help find out more about the product. Goggles now is claimed to have better business card recognition, which lets users snap a picture of a person's business card to have Google retrieve results about the card owner. Now, instead of recognizing a business card content purely as text, the app recognizes the information as a contact to call immediately or add to a user's Android contact list. Finally, Goggles 1.4, available now for Android 1.6 and later handsets, lets users suggest a better result when Goggles cannot find an image match. To access this feature, users will tap the "Can you suggest a better result?" prompt on the results page, and then select the relevant part of the image and submit a tag. These tags will be used to improve recognition in object categories where Goggles already provides some results. One day, Goggles Product Manager Shailesh Nalawadi told eWEEK, Goggles will likely be used as an augmented reality vector in some instances, though Google has yet to work out how that will work. Clint Boulton is a writer for eWEEK. Related Stories:
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