My neighbour who is into vintage and classic cars has recently bought a new Morris Minor. Me trying to find out any history on it or photos of it at previous car shows, etc, I pop the reg into google image search but the only photo that comes up is of the said car parked on the driveway of some house listed on OnTheMarket. Some standard estate agent property listing that has absolutely nothing to do with the car or cars in general and the reg number is not mentioned anywhere in the property listing. I find this very strange! Are google able to search text like number plates on random photos?
Google searching text inside photos
- Thread starter LeeUK
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Deleted User 298457
Deleted User 298457
Super cool if that's how it came about. They have been trialling much better image searching for a while. I guess 'clear' text recognition in images is a logical next step - car registrations clearly fitting the bill.
Soldato
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Underboss
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Slightly off topic
I use an app on my phone (or you can goto the website)
called Total Car Check
it normally lists things like for sale adverts as well as previous MOT history etc, i love it, saw a car ad on Autotrader, popped in the reg number, up come 4 previous adverts in the last 2 years
I use an app on my phone (or you can goto the website)
called Total Car Check
it normally lists things like for sale adverts as well as previous MOT history etc, i love it, saw a car ad on Autotrader, popped in the reg number, up come 4 previous adverts in the last 2 years
Soldato
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The technology isn't new because it is classed as an OCR (optical character recognition). It often came bundled free with flatbed scanners or as an extra back in the late 90s. Examples were ABBYY Fine Reade, TextBridge and OmniPage.
Now with OCRs having an online element, I can't help thinking that this is rather sinister. Government agencies with an Orwellian agenda will want to legislate online OCR usage in the name of "terrorism", knowing that image search engines can index images in a matter of days. Just use the tools > time > last 24 hours or the last week. It won't be just car number plates. It will also cover writings/logos on clothes, backpacks, posters in house windows, signs on doors, graffiti and even things like the contents of a phone or tablet screen if the image is sharp enough.
Maybe what I've written here will come to nothing, but I still have my suspicions.
Now with OCRs having an online element, I can't help thinking that this is rather sinister. Government agencies with an Orwellian agenda will want to legislate online OCR usage in the name of "terrorism", knowing that image search engines can index images in a matter of days. Just use the tools > time > last 24 hours or the last week. It won't be just car number plates. It will also cover writings/logos on clothes, backpacks, posters in house windows, signs on doors, graffiti and even things like the contents of a phone or tablet screen if the image is sharp enough.
Maybe what I've written here will come to nothing, but I still have my suspicions.
Erm seriously guys just type a word you know is screenshotted or photographed in your phone gallery search function and it will find the picture
Same for your Google or icloud galleries.
Also you can just search your photos by word now.
Typing car into your phone gallery will find all your ar pics
Same for your Google or icloud galleries.
Also you can just search your photos by word now.
Typing car into your phone gallery will find all your ar pics
I don't see a problem with photos uploaded into the public domain. If the information is there to read, someone or something can read it. If it bothers you, don't upload something you don't want to be seen.
As above, Google Photos ai is handy, you can just use a generic search to find photos easily and you can use Lens to scan a photo for text as well as find similar objects online. Sometimes quite useful.
Photos uploaded to Facebook do similar. If you catch them before fully loaded you'll see words that describe the photo such as "people smiling" etc.
It's a bit tin foil hat, but at worst they use that data to know what you like and serve you more naff adverts.
As above, Google Photos ai is handy, you can just use a generic search to find photos easily and you can use Lens to scan a photo for text as well as find similar objects online. Sometimes quite useful.
Photos uploaded to Facebook do similar. If you catch them before fully loaded you'll see words that describe the photo such as "people smiling" etc.
It's a bit tin foil hat, but at worst they use that data to know what you like and serve you more naff adverts.