Sujit John | TNN

Bangalore: Alok Goel loaded a picture of India Gate in Delhi on his laptop. He then took out his Android-powered HTC mobile phone, used that to click a picture of the visual on the laptop, and within seconds got a set of search results related to India Gate. We asked Goel, Google India’s project manager for mobiles, to do the same thing with a picture of the Vidhan Soudha in Bangalore, and promptly we got links to websites that would have given us information about the city landmark.

Since the demonstration was in Google’s office in Bangalore, we needed the laptop visuals. But the practical use, as you would have guessed, is when we are standing in front of a monument, or a painting in a gallery and we want to know all the details about it. All you then need to do is use your mobile phone to click a picture of the object and you get what you require.

The application potentially has plenty of other uses. You can take a picture of a book cover, and the application will offer to let you purchase it or research it. You can take a picture of the label on a wine bottle, and it will return tasting notes.

Google calls the application Google Goggles. In its essence, it does what a word keyed into its search engine does. But it provides the convenience of a mobile phone, without the inconvenience of keying something into a mobile phone. And it can particularly help on occasions where you have no idea what it is that you are looking at.

Goel says the application combines image search, web search, local search and geographical location (based on cell towers or GPS) to get you the best results. “Click a picture of anything, and if it’s on our database, it will show you all the details and give you web links,” he says.

You can potentially do it with people’s faces too. But Google has said the technology is not fully equipped for facial recognition yet, and that the company may not go in that direction until it is clear about the implications of it on people’s privacy.

Locating nearby locations

Goel also used the application to demonstrate another functionality. He switched on the video option on the phone and panned it around, and little tags appeared along the bottom of the phone screen, indicating various locations. The tags read Shell (a gas station), Gopalan (an apartment complex), Salarpuria (another apartment complex) — all of which are locations in the vicinity of the Google office on Old Madras Road. The application uses a compass and accelerometer embedded in the phone, in combination with cell tower signals and other applications like Google Latitude or Google Maps to identify nearby locations.

So, if you are in a place where you are not sure what’s around you, or if you are looking for something in particular and can’t find it, all you need to do is pan your mobile phone around.

Currently, these applications work only on Google’s Android operating system, but are expected soon to work on other platforms including the iPhone and Palm.

Vinay Goel, product head in Google India, says the rapid adoption of mobile phones makes mobiles the most handy tool for search.

“And with cheap unlimited data plans, like Aircel’s Rs 98 per month plan, and WebKitbased technology enabling a full browser experience on smartphones, we expect a dramatic increase in data usage on phones,” he says.

Voice search

Google is finding different ways to get people to use search so that it can deliver more advertisements alongside the search results. Earlier this year, it introduced search by voice on mobile phones. You speak out the name of a restaurant to, say, get its location and contact details, or a company name to get a stock quote. The application recognizes different accents.

We did a search for the Bangalore restaurant Samarkhand by simply saying ‘Samarkhand’, and it returned the right results (and not about Samarkand in Uzbekistan). The technology again uses location awareness (through cell towers or GPS) to obtain the best results.

“You can even speak out long queries like ‘cheap flight tickets from Bangalore to Delhi’ or an entire web address. Typing the same can be cumbersome and lengthy,” Goel says.

Source: The Times of India (Dated 16.12.2009)