Area 120, Google's "in-house incubator", has launched a document scanning application called Stack. The application uses Google Document AI technology to scan and categorize documents. Stack is for now available to Android users in the US.
In a post at The Keyword, it is reported that the Area 120 team created the Stack application "applying DocAI's corporate technology to personal documents".
To scan a document with Stack, users just need to click on an image using the application and the algorithm will do the rest.
Automatically names the document as it suggests a category depending on the type of document. All this will provide a more organized way of storing documents.
Although there are already many document scanning applications, Stack goes one step further by automatically locating important information in the document. According to Google, this includes details such as "expiration date or total amount due". This will allow a much faster search.
In terms of security, Stack protects your documents using "Google's advanced security and login technology". Users will also be able to choose to have an extra level of security in the form of fingerprints and face scans when unlocking the app.
Additionally, Stack will be able to synchronize any document with Google Drive. This means that users will not lose important documents even if they decide to uninstall the application.
The Stack app would not exist if Google had not acquired Socratic, a training startup, in 2018.
Christopher Pedregal, the founder of Socratic, is the head of the Stack development team. Regarding the idea behind the application, Pedregal states:
At Socratic, we used Google's visuals and language skills to make learning easier for high school students. I wondered if we could apply the same technologies to facilitate document organization.
