Getty, Google partner on image recognition app

The Getty announced Monday it’s become the first museum to join Google’s image recognition application – known as Goggles. The Brentwood institution says it wants to offer patrons and art lovers a richer art experience.

Take a picture with your smart phone and the Goggles application scours millions and millions of digitized images to tell you whether it depicts a book, a CD, or a magazine cover. Take a picture of a painting in the Getty’s galleries and you’ll get informational text, an entertaining audio description, and the ability to share it online.

Google’s Shailesh Nalawadi says it’s part of the tech company’s effort to organize and make available all the world’s information.

"A lot of the world’s information is visual in nature," says Nalawadi. "Paintings like these are a part of our culture. So we believe that using a tool like Goggles, making these paintings identifiable and allowing a whole new generation of users to interact with this work of art is very important."

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Neither side paid the other. Getty officials say they want younger visitors to connect with the museum’s art. Google’s people say they’re open to similar agreements with other museums - but wouldn’t disclose whether anything’s in the works.

The Goggles application is Google’s effort to extend its search engine reputation beyond the web and into smart phones.