Text search and voice search are so yesterday. Today Google unveiled Google Goggles, turns your camera into a search tool. Check out the video above. In a nutshell, it takes a picture of something, analyzes it, and returns search results. How it works, according to the Big G:
- We first send the user's image to Google's datacenters
- We then create signatures of objects in the image using computer vision algorithms
- We then compare signatures against all other known items in our image recognition databases; and
- We then figure out how many matches exist; and
- We then return one or more search results, based on available meta data and ranking signals; and
- We do all of this in just a few seconds
Google Goggles is in its infancy, and we're going to spend the rest of the day trying to use it on every random object in our basement (save for the bodies, naturally). This should be fun. You can download Goggles now in the Android Market for phones with Android 1.6 and above. [Google Mobile blog]
