Google Lens can make your life easier in all sorts of ways. I personally find it both fun and helpful to play with, and it keeps adding new features applicable to our daily lives. One of them has just been announced, letting you identify skin conditions. In fact, you can scan any change in skin, hair, or nails and find relevant results in a jiffy.
[Related reading: This coin-sized phone camera gadget can save your life in case of skin cancer]
Why is the new Google Lens’ feature good?
Like all Google Lens features, this one allows you to either take a picture or upload a photo. Whichever approach you choose, run your photo through Lens, and the app identifies visual matches related to your search. It’s great if you want to google the change you spotted but just don’t know how to describe it. As I mentioned, this feature doesn’t limit itself to skin conditions alone. – a mysterious bump on your lip, an odd line on your nails, or unexplained hair loss on your head – Lens has you covered in these cases as well.
Thanks to technology like this, understanding your health and body is becoming much easier. Consequently, information becomes more accessible than it’s ever been. But just like every new technology, it has a flip side too.
Why is it bad?
While Lens’ new feature is a great tool to help identify visually similar conditions, it’s not a substitute for professional medical advice. Still, many people choose to just look up their symptoms on Google rather than visit a doctor. This leads to untreated conditions that could get complicated or even fatal.
On the opposite side, Google results can make you panic. I joke with my friends that, if you google “headache”, the search results will always tell you that you have brain cancer. I tested this joke by using Google Lens’ feature with a photo of my recently checked (and healthy) birthmark – guess what, many results say I have melanoma.
But hey, maybe this isn’t that bad – dramatic results like this will make you go see a doctor as soon as possible. And no matter how convenient the Lens’ skin scanning tool is, always consult a healthcare professional if you have concerns about a skin condition or any other health issue.
[via TechCrunch]
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