Google Goggles

Google Goggles

This great little app that allows you to use your phone's camera to analyze anything and match it to something similar on the web. You can take a picture of a brand and find prices online. Take a picture of a magazine page and find the product or entire magazine online. Take a picture of some foreign language and have it translated. Take a picture of anything else and find others online. I can scan business cards and add them to your contact list.

Of course it also sans bar codes and other VR type codes.

Let's see how it does on something that is new to the web...

Taking the picture.

The picture is getting scanned for text or images that Google can search for.

It recognizes some text and ask you to rate the results.

Finally you click on the link and see that it is 50% accurate but this won't help.

I have to admit I gave it a tough task trying to recognize something new but most odd things will leave with the same results. Common things like Pepsi cans or movie posters will get you great results. I can see this being used to learn more. For instance take a picture of a Picasso painting and use the links to see what it is called and all the facts surrounding the piece.

Here's why this is a 60% program...
Pros

1. Scans are somewhat fast
2. The possibilities are only limited by Google's reach

Cons

1. Less than 50% success rate even among common objects
2. Can get stuck
3. Lack of manual focus

Rating: 6 out of 10 (60%)

Got it at: Google Mobile