In a move that might be seen by some as a bit of a “see if we can do it” move, and by others as a “this is totally amazing and awesome” move by everyone else, Google is today releasing a version of Google Goggles that can solve Sudoku. It’s also faster and smarter – but who cares about that? Google notes that everyone cares about that, noting that improvements have been made in reading both barcodes and print ads as well.
This new version of Google Goggles, version 1.3, scans barcodes extremely quickly (we’ve tried it out, as you can see below, and it definitely speeds along.) For barcodes, if you’re new to Google Goggles, all you’ve got to do is make sure you device is not jumping all around so that you can get a clear look at the code. Because such a precise image is needed, the app takes over your camera, clicking an image when it sees that it can read the code clear enough. Once it does, it shows up below the photo grid (as seen in the main image of this post) and you can click that button to get Google search results.
The print ads scanner is improved in that it can recognize elements along the lines of album covers, words, brand logos, and the like. They say that this feature only works for major US magazines and newspapers from August 2010 and forward, but as you can see in the video, we picked up an album cover from a magazine put out a few years ago. Works nice!
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The last improvement is a fun addition: a Sudoku solver. Kind of like a cheater for those people who cannot figure out these ancient puzzles of fun on their own. All of these updates are included in version 1.3 which is available for download on both Android and iOS. Check out the video of Sudoku courtesy of Google here:
[Via Google Mobile]
Somebody likes to take screenshots of their continuum.