Use Google Goggles as free image-to-text app for your HTC EVO
Ever sat down with an image of text that you needed to have in your phone but didn't want to have to type out again? I have been in this boat a few times and have looked for optical character recognition (OCR) apps in the past but have always hit a dead end. Until now. Google Goggles is free and gives your HTC EVO what you need, the ability to photograph an image with words and turn it into text.
OCR software is not new in the realm of digital scanners, but not everyone has one, much less one that is portable. Enter Google Goggles, which can read an image and turn it into text that you can send to your phone's clipboard, which you can then paste just about anywhere. Goggles will not create a text file out of the result, but being able to send that text to any other app, text message, or email is still very powerful.
You can also take a picture of foreign text and have the app translate it for you. Talk about saving some face in a restaurant and not having to possibly ask the waiter the meaning of every single little thing on the menu. Goggles will also recognize business cards and then build a contact out of the image in just a tap.
As someone who works in an office and routinely has to take a printout and somehow add its text to an email, I find this to be a lifesaving shortcut that will make me look pretty slick in front of some important people. There's nothing better than having someone turn their back and in a flash have a task done that might take someone else a few minutes, if not longer, to complete.
While this has been around for a long time, I honestly just found out about it and really wish someone had let me in on the secret powers of Google Goggles. Now can I take a picture of some ingredients and get it to make me dinner?
[Lifehacker]
