Google's Camera app may get Google Goggles functionality

Internet giant Google is rumoured to include an extra modification of Google Goggles to the official Google Camera app in Android devices for searching information by just taking a picture.

The extra functionality is nothing new but the implementation of Google Goggles technology the search giant already uses.

Google Goggles is an augmented reality (AR) app that allows user to make a search by taking a picture of anything, androidauthority.com reported on Sunday.

For example, to search for the creator of a painting, one can click a picture through Google Goggle app and it will find you the details of the painting from its database.

Goggles can read text in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Turkish, and translate it into other languages.

Goggles also works as a barcode/QR code scanner. It can recognise famous landmarks, translate by taking a picture of foreign language text, add contacts by scanning business cards or QR codes, solve Sudoku puzzles and find similar products.

In Google Goggles, one can only search the whole image, which has proven to bring plenty of discrepancies, the report said.

Images often display plenty of distractions, background items and other objects that may throw off a search result.

However, according to the report, there will be a new feature integrated, allowing users to outline the specific areas of the image in order to directly target their searches.

For example, if one wants to find the model number of a Nike shoe in a picture having a lot of other stuff, the user can select that shoe and outline it to focus the search.

Furthermore, it is said this technology has also been tested in "wearable computing devices", suggesting this technology may be incorporated with other products like Google Glass and VR headsets.

Google Goggles was 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.

Google may merge this app directly with the camera so it comes incorporated in all phones.