New Google Translate feature lets you use your smartphone camera to translate Thai

[webfact]

New Google Translate feature lets you use your smartphone camera to translate Thai

 

File photo

 

A new update to Google Translate lets you use your smartphone camera to translate printed text in real time.

 

The update means you can now translate text printed on menus, road signs, billboards or pretty much anything you can take a photo of.

 

The feature was first launched by Google in 2015, but has now been updated to translate Thai and 12 other languages bringing the total number of languages it can translate to 63.

 

The feature uses Neural Machine Translation, which gets smarter and more competent the more you use it.

 

The new feature is available in the latest version of the Google Translate app on iOS and Android.

 

It’s really easy to use - just open the Translate app on your smartphone, select the ‘Camera’ option and take a photo of the Thai text you wish to translate. It will then ask you to highlight the text by scrolling over it with your finger.

 

We’ve briefly tried out the new Translate feature and it seemed to OK at translating individual words such as items off a menu, although it did also throw up some of the typical curve balls that anyone who has ever tried to use Google Translate to translate Thai will be familiar with.

 

Still, Google says the more we use the new feature, the better it will get, so let’s hope the service improves in the future.

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-10-16

[bluesofa]

11 minutes ago, webfact said:

New Google Translate feature lets you use your smartphone camera to translate Thai

Oh, I initially thought it meant google could now lip-read, which I thought might be interesting in a short-time room...

 

[canuckamuck]

I have been waiting for this feature in Thai, it's pretty cool with other languages.

[jethro69]

Yep, we just spoke yesterday 'bout it, I installed it this morning at it seems pretty cool.

Some more testing is going on soon..

[Justgrazing]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

’s really easy to use - just open the Translate app on your smartphone, select the ‘Camera’ option and take a photo of the Thai text you wish to translate. 

Bet it won't translate my bird's writing .. even her own mother has trouble and she's a schoolteacher ..

[KhunBENQ]

A news headline:

 

"Koh Tao, the daughter of a prostitute, was raped by a prostitute"

 

Room for improvement

But the OCR ("reading" the Thai text) looks good.

(although under an ideal condition in my example)

[FritsSikkink]

2 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

I have been waiting for this feature in Thai, it's pretty cool with other languages.

It is utter <deleted> with Thai. It is ok with words but when doing longer text it turns into nonsense

[connda]

That's cool! 

[observer90210]

Yes, but better check your cell phone package before as it can quickly run up a fortune in your bill, if a proper free wifi is not available....

[tung tsz]

I worked in a Thai university for 10 years. They thought a good money saving idea was to use Google translate for all their official announcements in English -result total gibberish in English. I hope the new Google Translate is better.

[DrTuner]

 Thai is a fringe language for Google so the translations are so-so. It'll come though as the system learns and soon you'll be able to understand what the somtam seller mutters under her breath about farangs by using the real time translator. It's going to be a revelation to some.

[canuckamuck]

11 minutes ago, DrTuner said:

 Thai is a fringe language for Google so the translations are so-so. It'll come though as the system learns and soon you'll be able to understand what the somtam seller mutters under her breath about farangs by using the real time translator. It's going to be a revelation to some.

They say, I wish i had the courage to dress like a farang and not worry what people think.

[Kerryd]

31 minutes ago, tung tsz said:

I worked in a Thai university for 10 years. They thought a good money saving idea was to use Google translate for all their official announcements in English -result total gibberish in English. I hope the new Google Translate is better.

I have the problem in reverse. I type in English and use Google to translate into Thai. I usually then copy that and put it back into Google Translate (as it doesn't always come out the same). Many, many, many times I've had to write, rewrite, simplify, rewrite and re-simplify what I was trying to say as Google Translate just can't figure it out.

 

Usually ends up with my Thai friends telling me to just write in English as they can't understand the Thai translations !

[androokery]

This feature has been available for quite some time. You just had to trick the app. You set it to "English to Thai", selected the camera and then flipped the languages. Presto - Thai to English OCR translations. 

[zzaa09]

Ain't developed gadgetry grand.....[not]

[tandor]

6 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Oh, I initially thought it meant google could now lip-read, which I thought might be interesting in a short-time room...

 

..all you need to know is 'how much'.

[bluesofa]

1 minute ago, tandor said:

6 hours ago, bluesofa said:

Oh, I initially thought it meant google could now lip-read, which I thought might be interesting in a short-time room...

..all you need to know is 'how much'.

Those weren't the lips I was thinking of.

 

[Nyezhov]

I used it today, and Got the translation Big Head...which a bit of research showed me was actually daikon, which was cool, because I didnt want to be dining on head

[cookieqw]

4 hours ago, FritsSikkink said:

It is utter <deleted> with Thai. It is ok with words but when doing longer text it turns into nonsense

i have thai freinds on facebook, pressing the translate does not make the reading any easier, yes it comes up in english but for the most part unintelligible 

[Fex Bluse]

The poor performance of Thai language translation (Facebook, Google, etc.) is a direct result of 2 things.

 

1. so few native Thai speakers being competent in linguistics

 

2. Thai being a fringe and entirely unimportant language in any context (science, math, number of speakers, literature, poetry, etc.). It is an inconsequential language.

 

Nothing to do with Google or Facebook.

[Kerryd]

13 hours ago, cookieqw said:

i have thai freinds on facebook, pressing the translate does not make the reading any easier, yes it comes up in english but for the most part unintelligible 

Keep in mind that the "translate" function on Facebook is not "Google" translate.

I thought they were using Bing but it may be their own "in house" translation. I have the Google Translate extension enabled so when I see Thai text I can highlight it and click the little "G" icon that pops up and Google will translate the highlighted text in a pop-up box.

 

Almost every - single - time it comes out differently that what the "Facebook" translation gives me. I think the people that do the programming are clueless when it comes to "tonal" languages (or just don't comprehend that one word could have 5 different meanings depending on the tone). I think they just pick whichever word is at the top of the list of possibles and use that as the "default".

Google Translate also goes with a "default" translation and once it decides that something means "this" that is it. (Unless you are proficient enough in Thai to make a suggestion and it is accepted.)