Google is upgrading the camera feature in the Translate app. It allows you to live translate text, and should now get better, thanks to the arrival of new AI, language and camera enhancements.
Google Translate’s instant camera translation lets you point your phone at text in the real world and have it translated to your desired language directly in your viewfinder. It’s an amazingly handy feature for instantly translating things like road signs and menus – a massive help when you don’t have the best grasp of the local lingo.
Related: Amazon Prime Day Smartphone Deals
A big fix is the stabilisation of flickering when using the tool. The idea of Google Translate’s instant camera translation is quite remarkable but hard to use when the overlay of the correct translation is shaky – Google says it has now fixed this. The update makes the text more stable, and therefore easier to read.
The camera translation tool has now added support for 60 additional languages – adding Arabic, Hindu, Malay, Thai and Vietnamese. Another big boost to the feature is that you can now translate between all of the supported languages. Previously, the camera translation only supported translations between English and other languages.
The update also brings across a much-used Google Translate feature – ‘Detect Language’. Users can now point their camera at some text in the real world and Google Translate will automatically detect the language from what it sees through your snapper.
Related: Amazon Prime Day 2019
Google cites South America as a perfect example for the Detect Language feature. Both Portuguese and Spanish are spoken in areas across the region – so you can’t just assume a sign you don’t understand is one or the other. The Detect Language feature will solve that conundrum for you.
Aside from the obvious enhancements, Google Translate’s instant camera translation feature has enhanced AI now too. Neural Machine Translation (NMT) is now built-in – reducing errors by 55-85% in certain languages.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
