Recognising text and images on the iPhone
Text. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) allows you to distil text from a digital image in order to edit it in, for instance, Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Write. This is convenient when you have to edit, say, the text of a newspaper article you’ve scanned. We’ve already recommended free OCR tools such as Free OCR (http://www.free-ocr.com). However, the OCR technology can also come in handy for mobile applications. Think of the many “business card” apps for your iPhone or Android (just search for this term in the iTunes Store or the Android Market): they recognise the text in scanned business cards and enter it to your list of contacts.
Another handy tool is the World Lens app (iPhone only): it not only recognises text in snapshots taken with your phone, but it can also translate it. However, only English and Spanish are supported so far, and each language pack costs £3.
Image. Did you know that your smartphone can also recognise pictures? The only thing you need is Google Goggles (http://www.google.com/mobile/goggles/), an app for both iPhone and Android. With this tool installed you only need to click on the new camera icon in Google to take a snapshot of, for instance, a monument, company logo, work of art, etc. Google will then try to recognise the picture and look for websites containing information about the item it has recognised.
Create your profile to unlock this advice and many more.