14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has just announced that its new Windows 8.1 operating system will be featuring a new technology based on optical character recognition (OCR) that will allow users to search for text inside photos.
Basically, the built-in Bing search tool will give consumers the option to search directly from their PCs or tablet for text included in photos stored in their SkyDrive account.
Here's what Microsoft is saying about the new feature:
“For example, you might have taken a photo 6 months ago of the menu of your favorite restaurant, but can't remember where it's buried in your Camera Roll and want to remember the dish you had. You can simply type in the restaurant name on your desktop and Bing Smart Search will search text of your Camera Roll photos and pull up the picture of the menu with the restaurant name printed on it.”
The feature is not yet available in Windows 8.1 RTM, so it's most likely one of the updates to be rolled out just ahead of the stable build scheduled to go live on October 18.