Along with other nice improvements

May 7, 2010 06:59 GMT  ·  By

Google Goggles, the visual search service Google launched in late 2009, has just got better, with the addition of a new appealing feature: Goggles translation. What this new functionality is all about includes the possibility to translate text from various languages around the world. In other words, in case one travels to a country that speaks a language he/she is not familiar with, Google Goggles can translate phrases so as to make the traveling experience better than before.

According to a recent post on Google Mobile Blog, the Goggles translation feature works this way: - Point your phone at a word or phrase. Use the region of interest button to draw a box around specific words - Press the shutter button - If Goggles recognizes the text, it will give you the option to translate - Press the translate button to select the source and destination languages.

Goggles translation is able to read English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, the development team states, adding that it can translate into many more languages. The team is currently focused on expanding the capabilities of the service to other Latin-based languages, while considering the addition of non-Latin languages (such as Chinese, Hindi and Arabic) to the list too. Google has demonstrated a Goggles translation prototype at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which could read German.

“Every new release of Google Goggles contains at least one new feature and a large number of improvements to our existing functionality. In addition to translation, Goggles v1.1 features improved barcode recognition, a larger corpus of artwork, recognition of many more products and logos, an improved user interface, and the ability to initiate visual searches using images in your phone’s photo gallery,” the aforementioned blog post reads.

Goggles v1.1 is indeed a great solution, yet it seems that there are still a wide range of images that the service cannot recognize. According to the development team, they are working on resolving issues that prevent computers “to see.” Google Goggles v1.1 can be used on handsets running under Android 1.6 or higher, and is available for download from the Android Market.