Over the last decade, smartphones and tablets have become the "go to" devices for many people when it comes to consuming information. While email and websites remain amongst the most popular means to consume content on such devices, magazines and comic books have carved out their own niches in the digital world.
However, digital comics can be a hassle to read, particularly on devices with smaller screens. While you can manually pan around each page, zooming in and out to make text legible, it can turn what should be an enjoyable reading experience into a chore.
Google is looking to put an end to that by introducing a new feature called Bubble Zoom into the latest version of its Google Play Books app for Android. Leveraging the same technology used to recognize objects in photos, machine learning has been utilized to identify speech bubbles within comics. All users have to do in compatible digital comics is to tap on a speech bubble and it will be magnified for improved readability.
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As of today, all Marvel and DC comics support the technical preview of Bubble Zoom with Google discounting selected comics in the Google Play Store by 50%. The offer can be redeemed by using the code SDCC2016 by July 24th, 2016.
In its announcement, Google has set itself a goal to "eventually bring Bubble Zoom to all the comics and manga ever made."
Source: Google