Google will soon translate your doctor’s terrible handwriting

A new feature for Google Lens is being specifically developed to decode hastily scrawled notes from doctors

Google is developing an AI model that can decipher difficult-to-read handwriting, with a focus on notes and prescriptions written by doctors. The search giant announced during its annual conference in India on Monday that it was working with pharmacists to create a tool in Google Lens that can decode messily written medical notes (via TechCrunch).

Google showcased the feature during the event, demonstrating its capability to specifically detect medicines in a handwritten prescription. There’s no detail yet on when the new text deciphering feature is expected to launch, only that “much work still remains to be done before this system is ready for the real world.”

Google Lens is an AI-powered multipurpose object recognition tool that can be used to detect objects (such as products, plants, or animal species) and translate languages. The Google Len app can already be used to digitally transcribe handwritten notes, though in our own tests the feature was dependent on how legible said handwriting is. Harried doctors are known for having terrible handwriting.