Google Translate (Android) Tutorial: "Word Lens" - Using the Camera

This is a demo of the Google Translate app for Android (version 3.2.0). Video focuses on the translation of English-to-another-language feature, via camera method. The app uses a technology called "Optical character recognition" (OCR), which is really cool!

First thing you need to do is make sure you're in good lighting conditions. It doesn't have to be extremely bright, but it needs to be enough for a camera lens to focus on text. Also pointing your camera at the text and holding it as still as possible also helps.

First start the app and select English (on the top left). Then choose the language you need to translate to (on the top right) When you're ready, tap the camera icon on the left-middle. From here, depending on which language you're translating to, you will automatically be in a real-time translation mode (called "Word Lens"). All you need to do is point the camera at foreign text, and it will automatically translate the text for you on screen! As of right now (April 2015), I think the supported languages are: French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. So if you don't choose one of those languages, you'll automatically be in a different translation mode.

Translating to a (unsupported "Word Lens") language:
When you see the text focused & readable, tap the "Scan" button on the bottom right. This captures the screen and sends it through the translation engine. Next you'll see your screen capture with a bunch of boxes around the words. The boxes mean the translation engine has recognized words and has readied them for translation if you want. From here, you can use your finger to select the word boxes that you want to translate. If you want to translate all of it, tap the "Select All" button on the bottom. From here, you'll see a split screen. English on the top and the translated text on the bottom. View your translation from here. The app automatically saves everything you translate, so you can always come back to it later. When you start the app, your history is on the bottom half of the screen.

Hope you enjoyed this video! (: