Google Goggles ‘see,’ translates text in photos
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Google Goggles, the search giant’s visual-search tool for Android phones, has added a new feature that might appeal to those who are traveling outside the country and need some help translating text they come across.
After snapping a picture of text in a different language with their Android phones, users can highlight the portion of the text they want Goggles to translate. The app then evaluates the text and translates it into the preferred language.
The Goggles translate feature was originally tested in German. After some success, Google decided to bring it to all Android-based phones and added more translatable languages, including Italian, Spanish, English and French. Google did not provide a full list of all supported languages.
Although Goggles might come in handy when traveling, getting visual search to work can be extremely difficult. And as anyone who has used Goggles knows, the service can be spotty at times. The same will likely be true with the new translate feature.
Google wrote in a blog post that the team was facing ‘technical challenges’ that made Goggles a sometimes-unreliable service. And although it didn’t mention the new translate feature, it said Goggles itself was having a hard time recognizing ‘many images.’
In other words, your mileage with Google Goggles and the new translate feature will vary.
-- Don Reisinger