Google Goggles, if you recall, is the still-in-beta Android app that identifies and cranks out search results for landmarks, product logos, book covers and other items that you've snapped with your phone's digital camera. Take a picture of, say, that big tall pointy-looking thing in Paris, and Goggles will tell you that you're standing in front of the Eiffel Tower.

Now Google Goggles adds a new feature in its just-released version 1.1: the ability to translate text in a variety of languages simply by aiming your phone's camera at, for example, that indecipherable menu item you're thinking of ordering. Just snap a picture, and wait a second or two for Google to take a stab at a translation. (You'll need an Android-based smartphone to use Google Goggles, with version 1.6 or higher of the Android OS.)

Five languages are supported — English, French, Italian, German and Spanish — and Google says it's “hard at work” on other “Latin-based” languages, and will “eventually” be able translate languages such as Chinese, Hindi and Arabic.

I happen to have a review unit for Verizon's new HTC Droid Incredible (running Android 2.1) sitting here on my desk, so I installed the updated Google Goggles app and gave it a go with a few French-, German-, Spanish-, and Italian-language sites.

Taking snapshots of text on a computer screen can be a bit of a challenge. Goggles helps you out with an on-screen cropping tool that zeroes in on the passage you want translated, but a steady hand is a big plus. I also printed out a menu from a fancy restaurant in Paris (Chez Clement, yum).

The results? Well, mixed ... but don't forget that Goggles is a Google Labs project, which is to say it's still solidly in beta.

For example, a paragraph from a German-language article in Der Spiegel about the HBO show “Hung” came out like this: “From this idea, 'Hung forms,' another blow from the series wrought by the American pay channel HBO, an amusing story about the concept of de-career and how the current economic conditions always poros.”

Not quite what I'd call colloquial English. But to be fair: Yahoo!'s own Babelfish translation engine — which didn't have to deal with scanning in text from a cell phone camera — didn't do much better.

Besides, when you're off traveling, you'll probably get more use out of Google Goggles as a helper for menus and directional signs than for lengthy passages from foreign news outlets. So I took my printed-out menu from Chez Clement and gave it the old Goggles try.

This time, the results were better. One menu item I scanned in came out as: “Tartar omelet with herbs, arugula and baby spinach.” Another: “Roast chicken with thyme, piece of rump steak, duck breast, through the pore spud 'House' butter.” Not perfect, but you get the gist (and the gist sounds tasty).

Of course, there's a catch (beyond the iffy quality of the translations): Google Goggles requires a data connection on your phone so it can grab translation results from the Google servers. That means you'll need Wi-Fi access or a cellular data signal — and as we all know, roaming on international data networks ain't cheap.

Still. Google Goggle's new text translation features are fascinating at the least, and don't forget that Google is also working on real-time voice translation, as well. Can't wait for that.

(Source: news.yahoo.com)