Stumped by an English sign? Ask Google Translate

Technology giant Google has introduced a new update to its Translate app that will allow visual translation from English to Hindi and 19 other languages.

Google-Translate-App-Photo-AFP

Technology giant Google has introduced a new update to its Translate app that will allow visual translation from English to Hindi and 19 other languages.

Using the app, developed by Word Lens, users need to click on the camera option, and point it at the target — street signs, ingredient lists or instruction manual that need to be translated. Google will translate it into languages such as Hindi, Thai, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch and Filipino.

Users can translate using the app without an Internet connection. These updates will come on both Android and iOS over the next few days.

Previously, Google had the visual translation available for seven languages — English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

'Google translates about 100 billion words a day in 90 languages and one in six people with Internet access use Google Translate. It is part of that effort that we are extending visual translation to Hindi as well. India is an important market for us,' Google product manager (Translate) Julie Cattiau said.

Users will be able to translate English signs to Hindi, but vice versa would not be possible.

'Unlike Latin and Cyrillic script, Hindi and Thai are a little different. Hence, it is difficult to translate in terms of visual translation. Right now, we are making English to Hindi visual translation available,' Cattiau said.

Google has also improved its voice conversation mode to enable faster and more natural real-time translation of conversations across 32 languages.