Google on Thursday released free software that lets smartphones based on its Android operating systems be used as language translation tools.
Google enhanced its Goggles application to read and translate English, French, Italian, German or Spanish after pictures of words are taken with cameras built into smartphones such as the Internet giant’s Nexus One.
“We are hard at work extending our recognition capabilities to other Latin-based languages,” Google software engineers Alessandro Bissacco and Avi Flamholz said in a message posted on the California firm’s Web site. “Our goal is to eventually read non-Latin languages [such as Chinese, Hindi and Arabic] as well.”
Goggles is “computer vision” software that lets smartphone users do Internet searches based on pictures taken with the gadgets instead of typed in search queries.
Along with translation, the latest version of Goggles was enhanced to better read bar codes and recognize a larger array of artwork, products and logos.
“Computer vision is a hard problem,” the engineers said. “While we are excited about Goggles v1.1, we know that there are many images that we cannot yet recognize.”
The latest Goggles program is available as a free download for devices running on Android version 1.6 or higher.
Separately, Nokia Corp will launch new smartphones to “help close the gap” with competitors that have overtaken the world’s top cellphone maker in the market for high-end devices, its chief executive said on Thursday.
While Nokia remains a global leader in smartphones, it’s struggling to compete in the expensive segment with rivals such as iPhone maker Apple Inc and Research in Motion Ltd, which makes BlackBerry handsets.
Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said the Finland-based company has “plenty of work to do,” as the company’s share price continued a two-week slide.
“This year, Nokia is planning to introduce a new generation of devices that is expected to help close the gap with the competition in high-end smartphones,” he said.
The Nokia chief was speaking amid Finnish media speculation that he would be forced to step down, as the company was seen as losing out against chief rivals.
Nokia stock continued its slide on Thursday — closing down more than 1.5 percent at 8.94 euros in Helsinki — after it plunged 14 percent on the April 21 release of its first-quarter earnings report.
Although net profit in the period almost tripled to 349 million euros (US$442.6 million), with strong growth in smart phone sales and 3 percent growth in total revenue, markets had expected a more upbeat forecast and saw increased competition as hurting Nokia.
“The recession coincided with our transformation as well as changes in our device portfolio,” Kallasvuo said. “With all these factors together, it resulted in a decrease in operating profit and earnings per share.”
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