Google patents new technology of recognizing text in images

18th January 2008

Google, as reported by ZDNet, is now taking out a patent for a system of automatic recognition of inscriptions on digital photos. The relevant application was sent to the United States Patent and Trademark Office in June last year and published earlier this month.
The application with the number 20080002893 describes the system of so-called â€œrecognizing text in imagesâ€. The core of the technique is limited to the computer analysis of digital photos or images, and further extracting inscriptions in the text form.
It is possible that the patented system will be used to automatically search for text messages on digital images in the database of Google and to add them as keywords to the corresponding images. This theoretically would improve the relevancy of the results given to users' queries. In addition, the new system may help in determining areas in which a snapshot was taken.
Google, however, has refused to make any comments on how this technology is going to be used. The companyâ€™s representatives only point out, that Google patents many interesting developments some of which may be further applied, while others may not.