December 17, 2009

In the future, when Google Inc. rules over the entire universe, you won't have to necessarily type anything to do a search -- you'll just look at an object. Science fiction? Well, Google indeed seems bent on taking over the world (or at least all parts of it that can be digitized), but search-on-sight is far-fetched.

Maybe. Last week the company debuted the experimental, free program Google Goggles as its first visual search product. It doesn't use the naked eye -- that would require surgery beyond Google's powers, so far.

Instead, the program uses smart phones equipped with Google's Android operating system. The phone's camera takes a picture of something, such as a building, book cover, artwork or household item. Recognition technology then identifies the object, and search results start rolling in. When it works.

Google admits, on the program's site -- www.google.com/ mobile/goggles -- that Google Goggles is "still in its infancy." It introduced the program along with several features that are of more practical use, including near-real-time searches that include information that just hit the Internet. Also announced were schemes to incorporate tweets into search results.

But as useful as those features might be, it's Google Goggles that has the high gee-whiz quotient. So, how well does it work while still in its "infancy?" Amazingly well on some items and badly enough on others that sometimes it's unintentionally funny. It thought Los Angeles City Hall was an amusement park. But more on that later.

Google admits the program doesn't work so hot with certain types of objects, including animals, plants and cars. A series of tests I did on the program stayed away from those. Instead, using a Motorola Droid smart phone with the downloaded Google Goggles app up and running, I tried it on recommended items. * Books: As directed, I positioned the phone camera close to the cover of a book -- "The Open Door" by Peter Brook -- filling the entire screen.

I took the picture, and a blue line appeared that moved across the screen as if it was scanning the image. I'm not sure if that was just for show, but within 10 seconds the search result popped on the screen. Google Goggles got it exactly right, and clicking on the hit produced all sorts of information about the book, including a summary and price. Gee whiz, for sure.

The next book, "Wright Sites," about Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings, produced a curious result as its first hit: a 19th-century book by Theodore S. Wright, "Prejudice Against the Colored Man." Oh well, it got Wright correct. And scrolling down the phone screen, the fourth hit was "Wright Sites." A test on "Bauer," a book about Bauer pottery, also got it right on the fourth result.

Source:-http://www.latimes.com