Google activates text search in its photo gallery
Optical Character Recognition (OCR), or text recognition, is a tricky business. This technology not only allows you to search your certificates and diplomas, but also to browse your photo gallery for road signs and other relevant things.
Google Photos offers its users unlimited storage space for their photos. It is now also possible to search for objects, scenes, people, places or even dates. It was only a matter of time before the service could recognise text in photos.
To achieve this, Google is integrating the Lens app into Google Photos. This application already has OCR has been possible for some time. The technology works well on most shots, whether straight or crooked. The text recognition system even manages to recognise handwriting fairly reliably. Unless, of course, you're a doctor or scribble real fly's feet.
The new feature caught the attention of various users, who were quick to report it on social networks last week. Meanwhile, Google has confirmed its launch later this month. So the global roll-out is now in full swing. If you don't yet have access to text search in Google Photos, the feature should be arriving soon.
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