Gadgetory

so we're here at day one of Google i/o checking out new features for google lense it's an AR and AI platform for the company and it's basically built into Google assistant and now it's built right into the smartphone's camera so Google first introduced google lens last year and basically at the time it was a way to look through the cameras viewfinder and identify objects and photos now lens is much more sophisticated it uses all the Google's understanding of natural language processing and the object recognition image recognition it combines it into one big platform so that the smartphone can see and understand the world around it and it can parse human language prior to today Google lens is only available within Google assistant now it works right from the smartphone's camera and it works on other devices right here we have an LG g7 and we have a whole wall of props behind us that we can use google lens to identify and get information from Google search there are three ways to access google lens the first is to just open the camera and click the google lens button from there the phone starts looking and trying to identify objects that sees through the viewfinder the second way to access google lens is basically just by touching and holding the home button down here launching assistant and just clicking the lens button and as you can see right now lens already sees it and identifies objects with these little colored dots that says it knows what it is tapping on one of the dots will pull up Google search results so you see it it understands that this is an album by justice woman and conveniently justice happens to be the artist performing at Google i/o tomorrow and the third way to access google lens will be a double tap on the camera button but that only works on the LG g7 if you look at some of the clothing here that doesn't quite identify the clothing but it asked if I like the clothing other guys is trying to build a preference profile for me let's try this one right there it goes it pulled up shopping results from Macy's from QVC so it understands what this item of clothing is and then prompts you to buy it online now as you scan google lens over other objects it'll slowly start to recognize everything else that you you pan it over so we have a piece of art right here that is not correct hold on looking for results here we go so it went from the elbow but now it knows that this was a this is a painting by Pablo Picasso right here it sees a photo and it knows that this was a Norwegian London hunt I don't think I pronounced that right but it is a dog breed and Google identified it so Google wins isn't just for photos and objects you can do a lot with text now that includes text inside the book jacket of a book it includes text on menus at restaurants you can point the camera at a whole list of food items and you can pull up images of those food items you can pull up YouTube videos of how to make them you can even translate those food items if they're in another language into English or into Spanish or any other language you want that Google Translate supports now you're looking at a book for instance like the book swing time by Zadie Smith you can look at huge passages of text you can even grab that text using google lens and you can pull it out as if you would just copy and pasted it from a document from there you can translate the text into another language you can even then do Google searches on it Google blends essentially takes text from anywhere out in the world street signs restaurant menus even books and it makes that text searchable now the underlying technology behind Google wins it isn't just for basically looking through a smartphone viewfinder and looking at products or trying to translate text what powers Google lenses level the foundational AI work that lets Google do a our experiences so for instance because Google's software and the phones that power that software can understand and see the world you can create whole virtual 3d images for instance you can have paintings come to life right out in front of you and you can walk around you can even see the reflections of objects behind you in those 3d images if developers design them in the right way and know what environment you're standing in that's pretty wild you can also a point your camera lens at a podium and have an entire 3d image kind of come to life in front of you grow up into the sky and encompass the entire vertical area around you now these Google lens features are all coming later this month and as Google said onstage at the i/o keynote they're coming to more than just pixel devices and within the assistant you also be able to access some iOS from within the assistant itself but you have to use the assistant you won't be able to access it from the iPhones camera of course for all the news and announcements from Google i/o 2018 check out the verge comm and subscribe to us on YouTube at youtube.com slash The Verge