EverNote Beats Google: AIR Search Inside Images, NOW!
My, how the blogosphere is easily impressed. All it takes is a fanciful Google engineer’s patent application to get Google fans’ creative juices flowing: YAY! Google en route to “indexing the world” thanks to an unproven claim to “recognizing text in images.”
Readers of Insider Chatter know, though, that the latest Google not so shock and awe is not so cutting edge!
While search engine “experts” crow “The most sensational aspects of the documents come towards the end where we are told that robots might be used to take pictures of products on store shelves” and brace themselves for “a science fiction element to a world of robots running amuck in supermarkets” the Googley imagined “recognizing text in images” is a done deal, but NOT done by Google!
I recently heard the EverNote story, first hand, from the man who (metaphorically) wrote it, Stepan Pachikov, Ph.D. and Chief Product Architect, over lunch in New York City, a long (and enjoyable) lunch. I also spoke at length with EverNote CEO Phil Libin.
In November, I broke the story of the impending mass consumer launch of the high-technology “electronic ink” startup with a storied history. Read all about it in: Stepan Pachikov: EverNote Web 2.0 Perfect Mobile Storm To Hit in 2008, INTERVIEW.
Pachikov enjoys talking about wine, as he did with me. We did not drink wine, but we chatted about wine bottles, wine bottle labels, specifically.
Pachikov demoed for me how the next time I am having dinner at a bistro in Paris and enjoying a good bottle of French wine, all I have to do is snap a picture of the wine bottle label with my camera phone, and that “memory” can easily become part of the EverNote service.
EverNote then acts as my “memory extension” by enabling me, years later, to quickly recall that label by searching for any word in the photo, the geographical location of the bistro, the approximate time, or by a myriad of other attributes, Pachikov illustrated.
EverNote’s “Advanced Image Recognition” (AIR) is alive and well. Et tu, Google? How EverNote’s AIR works:
Whether you’re snapping photos with your phone or pulling in pictures from the web, if your images have printed or handwritten text, then EverNote can make them searchable. Look around at the things you would like to remember, and you’ll find that usually there is some kind of text associated with that object—a label, a tag line, a sign, anything. If the image you import into EverNote has that text, chances are you will be able to search on it later.
We call it Advanced Image Recognition, or AIR for short. It has been in development for nearly a decade and is unlike any other available recognition engine. AIR works hand-in-hand with EverNote’s visual approach to finding your notes. EverNote’s tape allows you to visually scan through all your notes, while AIR helps you trim the results so you only scan through those that are relevant.
Pachikov told me EverNote helps turn every mobile phone into a “universal capturing device.” How EverNote Mobile Snapshots work:
EverNote is a great place for you to capture and later find all sorts of mobile phone snapshots. It’s particularly good at recognizing printed or handwritten text within your images. Here are examples of some snapshot types: Whiteboards full of handwritten notes, Business cards, Notes written on paper, Product tags, Posters and billboards, Store awnings…and lots more.
Once in EverNote, the snapshots are run through advanced recognizers that index any handwritten or printed text within the images so that you can find them later.
EverNote’s Pachikov underscores: “AIR-Search is the first technology of its kind on the market.” Good luck playing catch-up, Google!
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