Google launches instant translation tool

The Google Goggles visual search application has been updated to include new features that enable it to recognise and translate words from one language to another. The search giant claims that the move could spell the end of tourists struggling with foreign menus.

Google Goggles combines web search with the images from the high-quality cameras that now feature on most smartphones. So taking a picture of, say, Big Ben and pressing search allows users to see information about the landmark. Now the app’s “region of interest” box can be used to select text and the programme will then recognise the text and give the option to translate. Google says that it “does its best” to detect what language the original is in.
The option currently supports English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. Google says that it plans to extend the recognition feature to other languages, based on both Latin and non-Latin scripts.

The company also says that the new version of Goggles, 1.1, “features a larger database of recognized objects, improved user interface, and the ability to initiate visual searches using images in your phone’s gallery”.

Goggles and so-called “augmented reality” apps are part of a new breed of applications that aim to use information gathered in the real world to add to web services and make results specific to a user’s location. So far, however, most are not in mainstream usage.