New Google service solves sudoku

BERLIN - If you’re stuck on your sudoku puzzle, there’s hope. New photo recognition software for Android mobiles - Goggles - can help solve the puzzle.

Just hold the numerical puzzle up to the camera on your mobile. Goggles will then recognize the numbers already in the puzzle and calculate the missing values.

Goggles, now in version 1.3, is also capable of reading ads in US magazines and newspapers and pulling up the appropriate websites. Recognition of bar codes has also gotten better, reported Google in its blog.

Goggles photographs items and loads them up to Google’s servers, where they are analyzed before results are sent to the user’s mobile.

Google says the app can also recognize products and famous sites. It also translates texts between English, German and Spanish.

The free software is available for all smart-phones that use the Android operating system. The Sudoku assistance is also available in the Google Mobile app for the iPhone.