Google Goggles Visual Search app for Android phones

December 8, 2009

Yesterday, at the Google Search event, Google launched yet another innovative application for Android-based mobile phones. Google Goggles Visual Search is an app that will enable people to search for information about famous landmarks, works of art or books by simply taking a photo of the object with their Android phones. Google will then search through its database and provide users with detailed info about the background of the object. You don't have to write anything, not even the title or author of the book.

The Google Goggles app can recognize books, tourist attractions, restaurants, pubs or cafés, famous paintings or buildings, and even company logos and business cards. By focusing the phone's camera on that object, Google will automatically compare elements from what it “sees” with its database of images and offer the most relevant results. Experts say this is just the beginning of visual search.

The app does not work yet for recognizing plants, animals or more general objects like cars, bags and the like. But more importantly, Google is able to pinpoint the location of the user through the GPS software and digital compass that are installed on many mobile phones that have the Google Android operating system. In this way, nobody will get lost again when visiting new cities. At least, no one that has an Android phone. The Mountain View company says the app works for tens of millions of objects and places, and it looks like the database just keeps increasing. Check out the video below for the official Google presentation.

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