Google Goggles Android App Review

Google Goggles Android App allows Android users to search by taking a picture. For searching, Google Goggles makes it convenient for users to interpret information such as putting meaning behind a painting. It can be a challenge to interpret such meanings into words. Google Goggles allows the user to search via photos which were taken from the users mobile phone. The Goggles app is used to take a photo and then pull up correct search results.

Users simply have to point their mobile phone camera at a painting, a famous landmark, a barcode or QR code, a product, or a popular image. If Goggles finds it in its database, it will provide useful information. Goggles can read text in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, and Turkish, and translate it into other languages. Goggles also works as a barcode / QR code scanner.

Features for Google Goggles at Google Play: Scan barcodes using Goggles to get product information, Scan QR codes using Goggles to extract information, Recognize famous landmarks, Translate by taking a picture of foreign language text, Add Contacts by scanning business cards or QR codes, Scan text using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) - Recognize paintings, books, DVDs, CDs, and just about any 2D image, Solve Sudoku puzzles and more.

Google Goggles

The Google Goggles system can identify various labels or landmarks. There is no requirement for a text-based search. According to Wikipedia, the system can identify products barcodes or labels that allow users to search for similar products and prices, and save codes for future reference, similar to the failed CueCat of the late '90s, but with more functionality. It also has ability to recognize printed text and use optical character recognition (OCR) technologies.

Even the Metropolitan Museum of Art participates in active collaboration with Google to use Google Goggles for providing information about the artworks in the museum through direct links to the website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The current version of Google Goggles adds several new features and improves both quality and ease of use. Goggles was only developed to run on the Android operating system.

Google Goggles is available for download at Google Play.