Microsoft has just issued an updated version of their Translator App for Windows Phone which is powered by Bing, and best of all is, it is a free download. Yes sir, you heard us right – this new Translator App for Windows Phone allows you to perform your very own translations of printed language with the help of your smartphone’s camera. You can point it at text documents, brochures, restaurant menus and street signs, and the app will get to work right away, throwing up whatever its database is able to offer.Of course, do not expect machine translation to be 100% perfect and accurate, and you will need to mix some wisdom as well as experience to get a better idea of what the sign board is trying to say. All in all, this is still far better than starting off on a blank slate, right? A video below shows off the Translator App for Windows Phone in action, where it offers continuous translation smoothly overlaid over the original language – be it English, Spanish, German, French, Italian or Chinese Simplified.
There is no need to have your smartphone connected to the Internet either, as long as you have the right language pack, the Translator App will be functional offline. This highly optimized and compressed translation system was constructed using the same technology which powers Bing’s translation features that people use when online, in front of their computers.
Filed in . Read more about Bing (Microsoft), Microsoft and Windows Phone.