Google Goggles: One Of Many Cloud-Based Processing Examples

My previous writeup points out that Anthony Oliver, Chief Technology Officer at Ingenuitas, sees built-in support for server-side processing of image data captured by a low-tech, inexpensive camera as one of the key benefits of his company's championed SimpleCV API. His quote reminded me that Google recently updated the Goggles app for Android, adding optional auto-analysis of each picture taken by a smartphone or tablet's built-in camera, along with consequent alert if Google's server-side search result identifies anything interesting in an image.

Although this feature is opt-in, privacy advocates will undoubtedly be concerned about yet another seeming capability for Google to monitor your each and every move, not only on cyberspace but also in "meatspace". Whether you like it or not, I think you'll agree that it's an intriguing way of harnessing increasingly robust wireless network bandwidth to shift the performance (and therefore cost) burden away from comparatively abundant mobile clients, instead amortizing it on a common server nexus.

For more, check out other media coverage:

• Engadget
• Gizmodo, and
• SlashGear