Google Goggles, despite being a new and unpolished product with a limited application, is an awesome concept that will almost undoubtedly grow some legs in the near future. At MWC 2010 a Google Engineer shows one way that – RIGHT NOW – Google Goggles can make an impact with language/character recognition combined with translation of over 100 languages. Take a look at this video where they snap a picture of a German Restaurant menu and it converts/translates the text to English:
“I would assume that many of you… would not be able to… know what to eat tonight. But if you have the new Goggles translation – what you can do you can zoom in… take a picture… place it there… so the:” It works and everyone applauds.
What happens when Google Goggles starts letting you take a picture of someone’s face and it instantly knows who they are and tells you? That would face a TON of privacy criticism but it’s an awesome idea, and one that would face SO many hurdles in being created that I don’t think it’s worth worrying about.