This year's highly anticipated San Diego Comic Con has begun, and it's no surprise that some companies have chosen the event to launch their newest products.
Take Google, for example, who chose the massive event to launch the newest thing in digital comic reading. The Google Bubble Zoom is a new tool for mobile and tablet users who read comics through their gadgets, as it enables the automatic zoom of the speech bubbles in the comics just by pressing the volume control buttons on the device.
According to CNet, Google Bubble Zoom was launched to an audience of about 130,000 people who attended day one of the SDCC. It will be available in the latest version of Google Play Books as a technical preview, and comic book readers will be able to use it on select volumes of Marvel and DC comics, which are also available at 50% off until July 24 for those who use the promo code "SDCC2016."
The technology that enables the new Google Bubble Zoom in Play Books is called "machine learning," which automatically detecs speech bubbles and panels within the page, so it can be modified to change the way it looked. According to Google software engineer Brady Duga, the company is "very good" at detecting shapes, objects, and images, which is why the function is "basically looking at a rich visual scene and extracting important information."
This is another step forward for Google Play Books, as it also added vertical scrolling just last year, making reading even easier. One downside, however, is that the cool new feature is available for Android devices at the moment.
However, Engadget reports that the company is looking to make it available across all digital comics, including manga. Check out the video below to preview the Google Bubble Zoom feature.
