Google Goggles Comes to the iPhone: Another Visual Search Technology Advance

Visual search technology is a term that's been tossed around with other terms like augmented reality. You may recall that I blogged about augmented reality a little while back (if not, read it here). Basically what this means is that you can use the camera on your smartphone identify places and things and get lots of additional information about them immediately. They pull together lots of information from geographic  (mapping and geolocation services), search engines (Google et al), and web references (Wikipedia et al), among others -- and deliver a boatload of information literally right to your fingertips.

Today's exciting news is that Google Goggles, a leading app featuring visual search technology, is now available for the iPhone. But rather than me try to write about it, let's use a visual medium (video) to show you some of the cool things it can do. And as the folks at Google point out, it only works on certain objects now. But just imagine how this technology might relate in the future to medicine, pharmaceuticals, and other health-care related places, things, and processes. Check out the video below and if you like what you see, download the app for your iPhone from the App Store (and for you Android users, the app has been available to you for a while, of course).

If the video is not loading below, you can view it directly on YouTube by clicking here.

About the Author

Stephen Welch

Senior Vice President, Communications
Executive Editor, CHEST

This blog, "It Ain't Rocket Surgery" is intended to help busy health-care professionals find useful online and mobile resources that will enhance their self-education and professional research efforts, or point out important topics of discussion related to online information and content. The blog's title is a Yogi Berra style mash-up of two common phrases, "it ain't brain surgery" and "it ain't rocket science". I hope it will be casual, fun, insightful, and -- most of all -- educational.

You can follow me on Twitter. 

I currently serve ACCP as the Senior Vice President of Communications, as well as the Executive Editor of CHEST, the ACCP’s flagship journal. During my 15 years here, ACCP has focused on growing and developing the editorial, technological, and business aspects of the College. We are constantly striving to make the journal and other ACCP educational content as accessible and useful to clinicians as possible.

When not at work, I like to spend time scuba diving with sharks, collecting original comic book artwork, exploring the digital world, and searching for good BBQ.

Your feedback about the blog is always appreciated. So are tips on good BBQ joints.