Many people have had the experience of scan their bookshelves for a specific title and turn irritated when they ca n’t find it . They know it ’s there , but it ’s lost in a ocean of other volumes .

Good news : Your iPhone can ( credibly ) find it for you .

spell forLifehacker , Justin Pot points out thatiPhonescome equipped with a feature article call “ optical graphic symbol recognition , ” or OCR , which identifies discussion in an image . Coupled with Live Text , a search method acting , your iPhone can locate wrangle in a picture .

An iPhone can make finding books easy.

To start , you call for to verify your Live Text feature is enable : It ’s typicallyfoundin Io 15 and higher . ( Go to options ; General ; Language and Region ; then toggle Live Text on . )

To line up a book , first crack a picture of your bookshelf . Next , open up the pic app and rap Search . The phone should be capable to ease off thebookby recognize thewordsand even point it out with a tiny yellow pane so you could find out exactly where it is .

The bigger the bookshelf , the more useful the feature is — though it ’s not exactly clear how precise the iPhone is in locating books from a picture read far out with a lot of titles . The size or eccentric of face might affect the app ’s ability , as can spine wear . You should also organize your bookshelf to give OCR and Live Text the intimately possible chance of help you : coiffure the backbone so they ’re unvarying and flush with the ledge .

The angle of the photo may also make a difference , though Pot was able to situate his statute title from an “ sticky ” position and with comparatively poor ignition .

The other OCR restraint : It takes a minute or more for the iPhone to digest the photo and pull together information , so you ’ll need to expect a bit between taking the photo and look for .

Obviously , you may apply the same trick to bookshelves anywhere , include libraries , bookstores , and thrift stores .

The method acting can work for any graphic symbol in a photo , meaning you could scan DVD or atomic number 48 spur the same elbow room . lively Text also endure a bit oflanguages , so you do n’t need to restrain yourself to English - only titles . And that ’s hardly the only entropy it can extrapolate from an image : Your iPhonecan alsoassist you in identifyingplants , birds , andinsects .

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[ h / tLifehacker ]