Google Goggles

Google Goggles was an image recognition mobile application developed by Google, which was later integrated into the Google Search mobile app. It was used for searches based on pictures taken by handheld devices. For example, taking a picture of a famous landmark would search for information about it, or taking a picture of a product's barcode would search for information on the product.

History
Google Goggles was developed for use on Google's Android operating systems for mobile devices. While initially only available in a beta version for Android phones, Google announced its plans to enable the software to run on other platforms, notably iPhone and BlackBerry devices. Google did not discuss a non-handheld format. On 5 October 2010, Google announced availability of Google Goggles for iPhone and iPad devices running iOS 4.0.

In a May 2014 update to Google Mobile, the Google Goggles feature was removed due to being "of no clear use to too many people

Uses
The system could identify various labels or landmarks, allowing users to learn about such items without needing a text-based search. The system could 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. The system also recognized printed text and use optical character recognition (OCR) to produce a text snippet, and in some cases even translate the snippet into another language.

Current version
The final version of Google Goggles was 1.9 which adds several new features and improves both quality and ease of use. Goggles is specifically developed to run on mobile devices running the Android operating system and can be installed using Google Play (formerly Android Market).

Although developed for Android there was an iPhone version, as part of the Google Search app, available from the iTunes Store or App Store. Goggles for iPhone required iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 or iOS 4.0 or higher to run.

In January 2011, version 1.3 was released; it could solve Sudoku puzzles.

In late August 2012, Google launched an update to its Google Goggles app, version 1.9. This update put an emphasis on helping users shop by including improved product recognition and new recommendations that help users browse similar products.

Earlier versions of the Android app were able to load pictures from the phone's gallery, which had been removed in version 1.9.2; however, it could be worked around by sharing the image to the Googles app from a file browser.

Platform
Google product manager Shailesh Nalawadi indicated that Google wanted Goggles to be an application platform, much like Google Maps, not just a single product. In 2013, they were working on developing an API for Goggles, once they determine what shape it should take. They also discussed API ideas with outside developers.