Most of us have experienced, or at least heard of, a doctor’s prescription that’s impossible to read or understand — the kind only people in the medical field seem able to make sense of. This isn’t just a problem in Myanmar; many doctors around the world are known for handwriting this illegible, leaving patients unable to understand what’s written.
Now, Google has built an AI system that can translate this hard-to-read handwriting. The feature was unveiled at Google’s annual conference. With a feature like this, people outside the medical field will find it much easier to understand what a doctor has written.
Image: Google
The feature, which translates messy, hard-to-read handwriting, is still in a testing phase and isn’t yet ready for public release. Users will be able to take a photo of the handwritten note, and the medicines written in it will be highlighted and displayed. Google demonstrated this at the conference as well.
At its annual conference held in India, Google unveiled dozens of new developments. Since India is one of Google’s largest markets in Southeast Asia, there are also plans to bring this new technology — the AI system that translates hard-to-read prescriptions — to Indian languages as well.