Google has just introduced a small but important update to its translator. The Google Translate for Android in version 2.3.1 includes a very interesting feature that recognizes handwritten texts on the touch screen of a smartphone . Thus, it translates by writing with style on the touch screen instead of having to enter texts through the keyboard, as was the case before.
For languages such as Japanese or Chinese , it is much easier to enter characters by drawing the pictograms, ideograms, and phonograms on the touch screen. Now, from Google they warn that this new feature is experimental . It is currently only available for Chinese and Japanese and can only recognize one character at a time. With these conditions, it translates Japanese or Chinese handwritten characters into Spanish , English , French or German .
The Google Translate for Android is available for download at the Android Market and it 's free. Translate texts (entered through the keyboard) into more than 63 languages. It is also capable of translating by voice in 17 languages without having to write, and offers the possibility of hearing translations aloud in 24 languages. This tool requires that the smartphone or tablet have Android operating system version 1.5 or higher .
As with speech recognition, translations using handwritten character recognition are done in the cloud . This allows Google to continue improving the accuracy of translations without the need for the user to download a new version of the application. This also implies that the smartphone or tablet needs to be connected to the Internet.