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Google Translate Smartphone App Updated Support for 27 Languages

Google Translate had implemented its first real-time translation tool in January. Now it has language support for 27 languages.

The translation tool is used via the smartphone’s camera and it immediately transcribes a sign from a language to your own, when you point the camera at the text message.

The improved translation tool supported languages ranging from Catalan, Ukrainian, Slovak, Indonesian etc. The application was initially offering translation support between English and Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Russian.

The application works reciprocally, whereas Non-English speakers can translate signs, letters and words into their native languages.

There is an exception regarding Hindi and Thai though, as Google can exclusively convert English to the two languages – and not the other way around – due to the complexity of their characters.

So, you can now translate to and from English and Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian. You can also do one-way translations from English to Hindi and Thai.

Evidently, the app is ideal for travelers, as it functions in the absence of a data or Internet connection for mobile phones. Thus, the app spares you the time of always traveling with a dictionary or a travel guide-booklet, whereas menus, bills, directions can be translated immediately to your native language.

As a matter of fact, the instant translation ability comes from the Word Lens app, which Google acquired last year, by purchasing the company behind it, Quest Visual.

According to Barak Turovsky, product lead for Google Translate – just 20 percent of the planet speaks English, and this minority needs some entrepreneurial assistance. Google’s advance is remarkable.

Turovsky acknowledged the need of people to translate pieces of text easier and thus he was able to help them.

“Today, we’re updating the Google Translate app again, expanding instant visual translation to 20 more languages, and making real-time voice translations a lot faster and smoother so even more people can experience the world in their language.”, he said.

The app, available for iPhone and Android, does not require an Internet connection, users being prompted instead to download the language packages to their copy of the application.

“In many emerging markets, slow mobile networks can make it challenging to access many online tools,” said Turovsky.

He continued by saying –

“In addition to instant visual translation, we’ve also improved our voice conversation mode so it’s even faster and more natural on slow networks.”

Photo Credits khcn.cinet.vn

Google Translate Will Also Process Real-Time Speech

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Being lost in translation might soon be a problem of the past, as tech companies are starting to work on a much needed app niche- better, real time voice and text translation tools. According to a new report, Google Translate will not only translate texts in real time but also speech. Google intends to work on launching such a tool as soon as possible to catch up with Microsoft’s similar app. The tech company’s pursuit might have even been driven by the recent launch of Skype Translator, a Microsoft application that can translate to and from English and Spanish in real time.

While Microsoft’s app can only be used by Skype users, Google’s is probably going to be used by a significantly larger number of people worldwide and it will be more adaptable. Skype Translator is only accessible by several thousand users but when Google rolls out the Translate update it will come as a free upgrade to the Android app, reaching thus hundreds of millions of subscribers.

Also, Skype translator is restricted to English and Spanish and will probably introduce Russian and Chinese translations as well. Even though it is not known how many languages Google Translate will endorse, it is safe to assume that there will be more than two for such a wide take off.

But who exactly will the new app work? Google’s Translate tool will record in real time what a speaker is saying and then automatically turn the oral speech into written content.

Additionally, Google plans to roll out an app that can be very useful for tourists and travelers. This upcoming application will translate foreign street signs automatically. All users have to do is place their phones’ camera on the street name and the app will show the translation on screen.

The New York Times reports that with in excess of 100 million individuals going for Google’s Translate application, the new feature could be used by a potential 500 million month to month users.

With supposedly 80-90% of the world’s web content written in about 10 languages, removing language barriers would be a defining moment for communications technology.

However, taking into account that the current version of Google translate has still a lot of accuracy challenges when working with written content, users should not expect a perfect translation. On the contrary, spoken languages might prove more difficult to translate, because of different pronunciations. This would be another issue, added to the existing ones related to grammar and syntax.

Image Source: Engineering and Technology Magazine

Quest Visual Joins Google

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If you don’t know what is Quest Visual, we have only two words for you: Word Lens! This is a fabulous app that allows you to see the world in your own language with the help of a smartphone. What does this app do exactly? It translates in real time a written message from a foreign language to English. And along these lines, Quest Visual is the company behind this incredible application.

So far the app has been showcased on Apple’s iPhone 5S ads, but Google bought the producing company recently. We don’t have any information on the details of the transaction, but it is clear that Quest Visual joins Google with nothing more than genuine enthusiasm.

On the other hand, the tech giant sees Word Lens as a very powerful tool to boost Google Translate. The take-over is beneficial for both parties: Word Lens supports only translations from Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese into English and this is where Google Translate steps in. The added value bestowed by Google Translate to Word Lens is tremendous.

Quest Visual joins Google, but what’s in it for the tech giant?

You might think that Google didn’t have to buy the entire company. For all we know, the Word Lens app has been available for Android for two years now and the App Store also features it. Moreover, there is a Word Lens app available even for the Google Glass, so Google seems to have all its cards already played well. But Word Lens can do a lot of good to the Google Translate service and here is why:

Quest Visual should help to greatly speed up the workflow in the translation app, as currently Google Translate requires you to take a picture, wait for scanning, and then the app translates the text in a separate interface. Word Lens’ video-based translation is much faster.

However, the two companies will have to work together very close in the nearest future. Word Lens translates locally. Google Translate works based on cloud data. This is a true challenge for the tech specialists from both companies, as the main goal should be to preserve the Word Lens speed even if one is engaged into an Internet round trip.

To top it all, Quest Vision joins Google but not without a “thank you” note dedicated to all its fans and supporters:

As a thank you to everybody who supported us on our journey, we’ve made both the app and the language packs free to download for a limited time while we transition to Google.

This is very nice and you should take advantage of the offer as soon as possible. The Word Lens is indeed an incredible app and in the talented hands of Google engineers, it has all chances to become something revolutionary.