Google Goggles

I am constantly amazed at the innovations that people come up with. I'm still awestruck by the complexity of mobile phone systems, but recent advances just make my mind boggle. GPS is another whole new life-changing technology which amazes me- the complexity of measuring signals from different satellites computing your position based on that information, marking it on a map and then calculating the fastest/ shortest route to another location all in a device that fits in my shirt pocket.

A couple of weeks ago, I started cataloguing my DVD and book collections on my phone (HTC Hero- an Android phone). The particular app I use has an option to connect to the Bar Code Scanner which in turn uses the built-in camera to analyse a barcode. So I pick up a book scan the barcode (this does not always work as barcodes seem to get worn with age), the app analyses it converts it to a number which it then searches an internet database and pulls down information such as the author, title, publishing date etc all of which is then stored on the database on my phone.

There are other apps which allow you to scan a barcode in a store and then they will compare prices at other nearby locations and advise you where to go to get the best deal.

Today I came across Google Goggles which lets you take a photo of an item- a book cover, a poster, a building, whatever and it uses image recognition to compare it with similar items in the Google database and then come up with a Google search on that item. A new feature is that if it is a manufactured item it will try to identify what it is and give a link to the manufacturer's web-site.

This technology is truly amazing when you think of the steps and processes that need to happen to make it work. Growing up, the coolest gadgets were transistor radios and calculators. How we have moved on!

People are very creative and very clever in the way they can make very complex systems work to produce a desired result.

If people are this clever, how much greater is the God who designed our brains for this kins of complex planning and collaboration? We are created in the image of God. as clever as we are we are a shadow of the real thing.