Google is rolling out a new ChromeOS update that makes it easier to organize apps on your screen, copy text from images, and adjust camera and microphone settings on your Chromebook devices.
The ChromeOS camera app now supports optical character recognition (OCR) to extract text from captured images of letters or other documents. It allows users to copy or search text in images, more easily convert images to searchable PDFs, and have image-based text read aloud by the built-in ChromeOS screen reader. Google says its OCR supports horizontal and vertical detection in 77 languages and is disabled by default in photo mode.
Additionally, the Magnifier tool will now work with ChromeVox, allowing the screen magnifier to automatically follow words when text is read aloud, helping visually impaired users maintain their position. This feature is also disabled by default and requires Magnifier and ChromeVox to be enabled in device settings.
There are also some quality-of-life improvements for the Chromebook camera and microphone – using them requires turning on privacy controls and app permissions in two different places, but now Google has made it easier by adding software permissions to the Apps section of the ChromeOS settings menu This process. There is also a new automatic gain control (AGC) feature that allows applications such as video calling software to automatically optimize microphone volume. This should improve audio quality on calls, and users will be notified in the quick settings panel when the feature overrides manual audio controls.
