Video: Get wicked-fast translations in 27 languages with Google app

(Google/YouTube)


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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google announced the addition of 20 new languages to its translation app with a video showing just how incredibly fast the service works.

The app uses the camera on your phone (without actually taking a picture or recording video) and downloadable word packs to translate the written word with "no Internet connection or cellphone data needed," according to Google's blog. We're talking favorite recipes from places you've visited and street signs when you're lost on foreign roads, not to mention person-to-person communication when there's no common language.

That service in and of itself seems unbelievable and invaluable in our modern world where travel is common and virtually everything is available with a few clicks on the Internet, but the instantaneous translation feels like something out of a 1980s sci-fi movie.

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In true Google fashion, the demo video takes a fun tack, using the tried-and-true classic "La Bamba," made popular by Richie Valens in 1958, to demonstrate the app in real time. They even recruited employees on Google's campus to help out (with varying levels of excitement).

The app offers two-way translations in English, Bulgarian, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian, as well as one-way translations from English to Hindi and Thai. The app also supports 37 languages in camera mode, which requires taking a picture for translations.

To see the app in action, watch the video, and to read more about the technical aspects and future improvements planned for the app, visit Google's blog.

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Martha Ostergar

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