Apparently Google has been in the process of making some wicked software that can translate text from pictures that you take with your cell phone into different languages! Sadly it can’t translate spoken words, but it can translate something from say.. a German dinner menu. The demonstration by Google translated the text: “Fruhlingssalat mit Wildkrautern” to “Spring salad with wild herbs.” The demonstration took a photo of a German dinner menu, sending back the translation, using an Android based phone.
Google has said that the software doesn’t actually translate the text on your phone, which could be slow and inaccurate, but instead sends it to Google’s servers for processing. The picture is translated on Google’s cloud-based network, which can process a translation faster and more accurately than your phone.
Google didn’t mention when the software would be available for your mobile phone, or exactly what platforms would be supported. The software will be available for the Android, however, but no mention if Google plans on expanding these services to Windows Mobile or the iPhone. Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, mentioned that more and more applications will take advantage of “cloud computing,” a resource Google is likely to expand on over the years to improve its speed. I don’t know about you, but I am looking forward to this. Hopefully it will be ported to the iPhone, or maybe somebody else snatches up this idea and figures out a way to do it on their own.
We can only hope!
