Google Translate Gets 20 Languages for Visual Translations, Speeds Up Voice

For example, by opening the translate application, users can click on the camera and point it at street sign, ingredient list, instruction manual etc.to translate into the language of their choice. The text transforms live on your screen into the language that you want to translate without requiring an Internet connection. However, Hindi and Thai are now supporting only one-way translations from English and not vice-versa.

Previously, the app could only instantly translate to and from English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Now users can instantly translate up to 27 languages, making the program available to a wider audience.

As before, you get an even larger pool of languages to select from if you skip the instant translations and instead simply snap a picture of the text that you wish to translate. The trick is something called convolutional neural networks (CNNs), which are often used in image and video recognition to mimic the eyes and brain and they use minimal amounts of preprocessing.

The new update from Google is primarily related to two features that were added to Translate in January. “If we overdo the rotation, the neural network will use too much of its information density on unimportant things”, said Good.

The update also features an improved voice conversation mode, which enables faster and more natural-sounding, real-time conversation translations – even on slower networks. The translation service’s real-time translation feature, introduced early this year, can instantly interpret signs in foreign languages to the user’s native language. And now it’s getting better: Today, the Google Translate team announced that 20 new languages are joining Translate’s stable of instantly translatable languages.

The instant visual translate functionality of Google Translate has been enhanced thanks to Google’s acquisition of Word Lens. Often languages of minorities have faced extinction but with inventions like Google Translate, those languages can be preserved, not only to a certain few but to the entire world. Just be sure to have some available memory on your phone, since you’ll have to download a 2MB pack for each language that you may need for the app.