Google has filed a patent (full text available here) for “recognizing text in images,” which could give Google Street View a whole new meaning and purpose. According to Information Week, the technology would involve capturing text from things like street signs, building names, and address numbers; data that could be used for everything for more precise driving directions to advanced image search.
[img src="" caption="" credit="" alt=""]However, potential applications of text recognition technology go beyond expanding existing Google products. For example, Google could start photographing the aisles of stores to create product indexes with vast amounts of data. For example, if Google were to photograph a box of Lucky Charms, it might be able to tell you not only its price, but nutritional information and ingredients.