Google Lens and Lookout: Two Free Tools Worth Your Attention

Generally speaking, Google Lens and Lookout are tools designed to help people with low vision or blindness. However, you don’t have to be visually impaired to take advantage of the many features offered by Google Lens and Lookout.

If you have embraced the Google ecosystem as I have, these two apps are certainly worth your attention.

Lens and Lookout are free tools that use your smartphone camera to provide information about the objects around you. Both the apps leverage Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to achieve Google’s stated goal of making the world’s information universally accessible.

Google Lens works like an image search. It requires you to click your camera to capture the image of the object that you want identified.

Lookout leverages your phone’s camera and sensors to identify objects and text while providing audio feedback on what it sees.

Here are a few ways that you can leverage Google Lens and Google Lookout for day-to-day tasks.

Google Lens

Copy text from paper to the camera to the computer

Simply take a picture of a page in a book or document using Lens and let the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) capabilities of the app convert it to editable text. If you are logged into a computer with your Google credentials, you can copy and paste the text from your phone to your computer.

It’s like a drag and drop from your mobile phone to your PC.

How cool is that?

Lookup a product that catches your eye

If you come across an object that you like but are not sure where to find it, Google Lens can help. Capture an image of the item in question and let Lens try to find it for you on the Web.

Other image-recognition-based applications

From looking up buildings in a strange city to book reviews, you can try using Lens to provide you with more information on the image you feed into the application. Lookup results often tend to be that of “similar” images rather than the specific ones you are looking for.

Scan barcodes

When you are dealing with virtual menus in restaurants, Google Lens is a great go-to tool. There are many apps that you can use to scan barcodes. However, since Google Lens is native to the camera app on my phone, I use it as my default barcode scanning tool.

Quickly translate foreign text to your language

The Translate mode of Lens works well if you are trying to read forms and instructions that come in an unfamiliar language. In the Translate mode, simply scan the lines of text that you want to be translated. The real-time translation can be viewed on your phone or opened and saved in Google Translate for future reference.

For Pixel phone users, Lens is available as a camera feature. It is also available for download through the App Store as an app for IOS devices.

Google Lookout

The beauty of Google Lookout is that you don’t need to click your camera for the application to try and identify the objects around you.

Read out text visible on your phone’s screen

Quick Read is the default mode for Lookout. Use this mode to quickly have the app read out text visible on your phone’s screen. Quick Read works great for reading forms, fine-print in packaging, and text on glossy surfaces where reading the characters may be a challenge.

Find out what is around you

Lookout’s “Explore” mode provides audio feedback on the objects that it sees as the user pans the phone’s camera around him or her. The ability to identify elevators in a building, the location of a watercooler, or a piece of furniture in your path can be beneficial features for someone with visual impairment.

Convert a page from a book into an editable document

The Scan Document mode is useful for reading full pages of text. With Lookout’s real-time guidance, users can take a page’s snapshot and have the app read out the captured lines.

The Scan Document mode can also capture text from surfaces such as packaging, electronic devices, bottles, and other day-to-day objects. The ability to capture the text from an image into an editable and shareable document can be useful in many situations.

Identify packaged foods by their labels

Food Label mode is another accessibility feature that can be used while shopping or picking out food items from a shelf. Food Label mode can scan barcodes on food packaging and identify foods by their labels even when you are offline.

Avoid handing out the wrong denomination of US currency

If you struggle with identifying the various denominations of US paper money, the Currency mode is for you. At this time, Currency mode only works with US dollars and recognizes the bills irrespective of the side that faces the camera.

Google Lookout is currently available from Google Play for Android devices running version 6 or above and comes in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian.  

So, have you tried Google Lens and Google Lookout yet?