This is a great example of how Google could out-do the iPhone. The more non-trivial mobile applications have some processing that happen in the cloud. If Android phones could translate voice in real-time during a phone call and the iPhone could not, which phone would you consider buying?<p>Realistically though Google wants their services and applications on <i>all</i> platforms; now if only the App store would approve these...
One step closer to photographing a sign in a foreign country and doing OCR followed by Google Translate, maybe followed by overlaying the translated text back on the sign.<p>I think this would be a killer feature. I've never had much of a positive response when posting it as an idea previously - is it the case that if it really would be a killer feature, people would be all over the idea as well as the implementation, or is it possible to be a little supported idea that turns into a killer feature?<p>(Edit: Or maybe it's just more a European thing where several foreign languages are a few hours drive in any direction?)
Previous work in the domain by others:<p>Nokia: <a href="http://digital.venturebeat.com/2008/04/11/nokia-develops-navigating-system-based-on-image-recognition-landmarks/" rel="nofollow">http://digital.venturebeat.com/2008/04/11/nokia-develops-nav...</a> (they use the golden gate as their example too)
Also: <a href="http://www.mobvis.org/publications/MMT2007_Paletta.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.mobvis.org/publications/MMT2007_Paletta.pdf</a>, <a href="http://mirw09.offis.de/paper/What%20is%20That%20-%20Object%20Recognition%20from%20Natural%20Features%20on%20a%20Mobile%20Phone.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://mirw09.offis.de/paper/What%20is%20That%20-%20Object%2...</a><p>'World browser': <a href="http://www.wikitude.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.wikitude.org/</a><p>Using GPS together with the compass to get interesting results:
2006, Japan: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/technology/28locate.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/technology/28locate.html</a> and now there are iPhone applications
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2uH-jrsSxs&feature=player_embedded" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2uH-jrsSxs&feature=playe...</a>
Augmented reality starts becoming more than just a pipe dream. Expect a lot more of this.<p>P.S. Just went to ARdevcamp at Hacker Dojo last Saturday- it was a really exciting event. There were a lot more people than I expected, and lots of interesting discussion about this emerging space.
First there was the internet of Documents (www).<p>Then there was the internet of People (social networks).<p>And the internet of Places (maps, LBS, still happening).<p>Soon we will see the internet of _Objects_ and something like Google Goggles will be the key driver.<p>Documents -> People -> Places -> Objects. What's next?
Can anyone who has an Android phone who has tried this out for a few hours/days report on how well this works in practice? This looks pretty fantastic, especially if it can also read stuff like QR codes, etc.
Damn you for making me want an Android-based phone, Google! First free turn-by-turn navigation, now this. Argh. Once AT&T gets a good Android phone, I'm switching.
Google's relentless focus on speed within search is going to play perfectly in the realm of augmented reality.<p>I anticipate a video version of this soon.
reminds me of a much more practical version of some of the cool bits from the "sixth sense" interface that was presented at TED / all over the news awhile ago - <a href="http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/" rel="nofollow">http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/</a> . There, their prototype was also able to "look at" an object and return information about it immediately (e.g. you hold up a book in front of the camera, a processor recognizes it and pulls some relevant information, and the mini projector next to the camera projects the information back onto the book cover)
Where does the info for the landmark recognition feature come from? Is it from street view?<p>I dont see how the landmark recognition feature could be useful. If you have a camera + 3g on your phone, you have a GPS.