Google Goggles app can now recognize amongst 45,000 types of banknotes

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  • February 19, 2012 at 12:06 pm

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Google Goggles app currency recognition

Google’s Goggles app is striving to become a Swiss army knife for globetrotters. Using your device’s camera and an active data connection, Goggles can recognize landmarks and famous artworks and more recently it can even translate text on the fly.

The always-active Google development team has been adding even more capabilities to Goggles and it has just enabled the app to recognize between more than 45,000 types of currency from over 300 countries. Currently the app is limited to banknotes, and as usual you just take a picture of the note and it will come back with the type, amount and links to further information.
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Google Goggles 1.7 for Android brings continuous mode, other tricks up its sleeve

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  • December 7, 2011 at 3:46 pm

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Google Goggles in continuous mode

Google has just updated its Goggle Android app to version 1.7. The biggest change in the updated version is a new continuous mode. Instead of having to aim your device’s camera at a product, artwork, landmark etc. and press the shutter button before getting any results, Google Goggles now continuously scans for recognizable objects and populates a timeline with the results. We’ve tried it and it’s really what has been missing from Goggles so far. Images recognized in continuous mode won’t show in your search history and you won’t be able to add contacts or translate text.

Another new feature is article text recognition. You can just scan a written piece of text and get online results referring to that piece. Finally you now get search suggestions from other users, which will hopefully improve results. As usual, check the ‘My Apps’ section on your device to update, or search for Google Goggle to install.
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Google Goggles for Android can now run in the background, shames you with its knowledge

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  • September 14, 2011 at 3:46 pm

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Google Goggles for Android v.1.2 background searching

We’re sure that one of the first things you showed-off to your friends and family when you got your Android smartphone was Google Goggles. The app allows you to take pictures of artwork, landmarks and even everyday things and in true Google form, returns back information, such as the name of a landmark or a painting.

However, the true utility of the app was constrained by the fact that you had to launch Goggles with the sole purpose of using it to search for an object but with mixed results. Well, Google just did the smart thing and enabled it to run in the background, silently getting information on any photos that you take normally with your device’s camera. When it recognizes an object in an image, it will notify you through the Android notification bar.

Just a warning to anyone concerned about privacy, in order for Google to look-up your pictures these are sent to Google’s servers for processing. However this is an opt-in feature, that is you have to enable it first.

To try out the new background image search, launch the Market and update Google Goggles to the latest version. To enable or disable the feature at any time touch the option key while in Goggles and go to ‘Settings’ and ‘Search from Camera’.
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