Most doctors write prescriptions in a hurry, which is why poorly written texts become a puzzle that’s often very hard to solve for patients. While the problem is not new, many tech companies have tried their luck developing a solution. Sadly, none of them could make a major breakthrough as of now.
Nonetheless, things may very soon change as Google recently announced at its Google for India event that they are working with pharmacists to develop an AI-powered ML model. The app will be able to convert unfathomable prescription text into readable content on your phone screen.
Google also showcased the prototype feature at the event. The demonstration showed the capability of the feature to detect the names of medicines from messy handwritten texts. The “state-of-the-art AI Machine Learning Model”, as Google calls it, will identify and highlight the name of medicines in a prescription.
It will allow users to take a picture of the prescription or upload it right from the phone storage to decipher the contents of the prescription. However, Google also mentioned that the output of the technology could not be used to draw a decision.
It is prudent to mention that Google has already implemented a similar technology through its Google Lens. You can detect objects and translate texts from one language to another using your phone’s camera. Google Lens also uses an AI-powered object recognition system and can transcribe handwritten notes to digital text right on the screens of your phone. However, this feature’s accuracy depends on the handwriting’s legibility.
The feature is currently in the prototype stage and has yet to be ready for public release. Google also did not specify when they will officially launch the feature for public use.
Other Highlights From the Event
“Google for India” is Google’s annual event, where it showcases several new features, technologies, and developments. The 8th edition of the event was concluded on 19 December 2022 in New Delhi, where the company stressed heavily using Artificial Intelligence to solve real-life challenges. The CEO of Google and Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, also mentioned that the India Digitization Fund (IDF) of Google will now give extra preference to women-led start-ups and businesses. IDF grant of $10 billion was announced in 2020.
Google will also build a unified AI model that could handle more than 100 Indian languages in speech and text interface under the project Vani. The project will also be a part of Google’s global effort to bring online the most-spoken 1000 languages of the world, which will help people access information and knowledge in a preferred and comprehensive language.
The company will also fund a grant of $1,000,000 to the Indian Institute of Technology- Madras to set up a multidisciplinary Center for Responsible AI, which will be the first of its kind. The establishment will work on the standards committing to interpretability, fairness, security, and privacy in using Artificial Intelligence.
With more than 500,000,000 users in the country, India is Google’s key market in South Asia. However, Google has faced several challenges in the Indian market this year. The company was slapped with a hefty penalty of $162 million and $113 million in the last week of October by the antitrust agency of the country- the Competition Commission of India.