Google is rumored to be looking at bringing augmented reality to its camera app. If true, the company would leverage technology from Google Goggles thereby allowing you to see relevant search results like nearby restaurants, transit information, and recommended retailers to purchase items.
Details given to Android Authority through an anonymous source state that the integration would include a new feature “allowing users to outline specific areas of the image in order to directly target their searches. This would be an improvement on Google Goggles since the previous iteration only allowed you to search the whole image.
Reports also indicate that “this technology has also been tested in “wearable computing devices”. This could suggest this technology may come to products like Google Glass and possibly even VR (or AR) headsets.”
Google Goggles launched in 2009 as a visual search technology app, but after a few years the company stopped updating it and it fell by the wayside. But if today’s rumor is true, instead of making it a standalone app, Google will merge it directly with the camera so it comes incorporated in all phones, likely to build up mobile search usage. In fact, it’s likely that with the reported Google keyboard, the company is looking for more seamless ways to get people to search without having to open up another app — it’ll be built into the tools that we’re accustomed to using.
We’ve reached out to Google for comment and will update if we hear back.
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