Google Goggles, the visual-searching tool for Android powered smartphones, has been updated with perhaps its most useful functionality yet.
The powerful app can provide all sorts of pertinent information by analysing photos taken with an Android handset. Goggles can identify a snap of objects such as a landmarks, paintings or book covers, and pull up complimentary data from the web.Now, the app takes its first step towards having a Hitchhiker's Guide-esque service, by translating text from one language to another just by snapping it with your Android. Useful for menus, signs and documentation, Google hopes it will prove essential for monolingual travellers in Europe.
As of now, Google Goggles can read text in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish, and translate it to many more Latin-based languages. The team hopes to expand functionality in the future, and even support non-Latin languages such as "Chinese, Hindi and Arabic".
The team at Google Labs admits that the technology is in its infancy, and is plagued by technical hurdles. "Computer vision is a hard problem." Google's blog says, "we know that there are many images that we cannot yet recognize."
That's why the development team is so dedicated to keeping Google Goggles updated with new functionality and tweaks. Alongside the translation service, the new Goggles update features improved barcode recognition, a massive update to the image database, a fresh user interface and the ability to initiate searches from images on your phone's memory.
The translation update to Google Goggles is available now for handsets running Android OS 1.6 or newer, which include the Motorola Droid and Google's own Nexus One.
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