Google Lens Uses Your Camera To Make Searches In Real-Life

When you hear a song that you don’t know, there’s a good chance you might launch apps such as Shazam or SoundHound to try and identify it. So what about objects? What if you saw a table or a pair of shoes you really liked but didn’t know where to buy it? Google Goggles was an option, but it seems that Google could be replacing it with Google Lens.

During an announcement made at Google I/O 2017, Google revealed that they were making some changes to Google Assistant. Part of those changes is the introduction of a new feature called Google Lens, which is basically like a real-life reverse image search where you can use your smartphone’s camera to identify objects in real-life.

According to Google, “You’ll be able to learn more about things around you, and even take action based on your surroundings, while you’re in a conversation with your Assistant. If you see a marquee for your favorite band, you can hold up your Assistant, tap the Lens icon and get information on the band, tickets and more.”

Users will also be able to pull event information, business cards, or even translate text from other languages. Note that some of these features already exist, like snapping a photo and translating it via Google Translate, but the idea is that Google Lens will bring all those features into a single place, thus making it more convenient to use. It will be part of the new features that will be coming to Google Assistant, so keep an eye out for it.

Tyler Lee
Categories: Cellphones, Photo-Video
Tags: Google, google i/o 2017, google io, google lens