Google Goggles, launched last year, is one of the new wave of augmented-reality apps that combine a smartphone camera with a layer of data, giving you more information about what you're seeing.
So far, the AR apps have tended to focus on visual interpretation of objects (the Statue of Liberty) or interpreting text (such as titles of books, that can then be searched for to find the lowest price). Google's Goggles has now been upgraded to version 1.1, and to take that text and translate it into another language.
The new version requires Android 1.6 and higher.
The new version of Googles (available via the Android Market app) can read text in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish and translate it into a variety of other languages, according to Google. Don't want the entire block of text converted? Goggles now allows you to highlight a block with a built-in crop tool and use that as a selection mechanism.
Unfortunately, non-Latin characters still aren't supported. "We are hard at work extending our recognition capabilities to other Latin-based languages," , wrote in a blog post. "Our goal is to eventually read non-Latin languages (such as Chinese, Hindi and Arabic) as well."
"Matt," apparently a Google employee, noted in the comments attached to the post that support for other characters will be dependent on Google's own cost mechanisms. "Support for languages that aren't Latin-based is going to depend on the quality level we can reach as well as processing cost," he wrote. "We definitely hope to support Simplified and Traditional Chinese in the future."
The new version requires Android 1.6 and higher.
The new version of Googles (available via the Android Market app) can read text in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish and translate it into a variety of other languages, according to Google. Don't want the entire block of text converted? Goggles now allows you to highlight a block with a built-in crop tool and use that as a selection mechanism.
Unfortunately, non-Latin characters still aren't supported. "We are hard at work extending our recognition capabilities to other Latin-based languages," , wrote in a blog post. "Our goal is to eventually read non-Latin languages (such as Chinese, Hindi and Arabic) as well."
"Matt," apparently a Google employee, noted in the comments attached to the post that support for other characters will be dependent on Google's own cost mechanisms. "Support for languages that aren't Latin-based is going to depend on the quality level we can reach as well as processing cost," he wrote. "We definitely hope to support Simplified and Traditional Chinese in the future."
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