Tuesday, February 5, 2013

MIXED MESSAGE


Language translation technology is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  I can’t imgine being an expat without Google Translate.  I have gained a whole new level of respect for folks who lived the expat life BG, or “Before Google.”  But technology isn’t perfect (yet).  During the last few days I really began to wonder why there isn’t an app that takes a picture of a sign and instantly recognizes the text and translates it for you.  Wouldn’t that be awesome!  To my knowledge none exist, if you are aware of one let me know; if you are developing one, how can I invest?
Over breakfast at one of the local cafes in Oss, “Bakkerij Bart,” I had an epiphany.  I recalled that the Google app on my iPhone had a feature where you could take a picture and then Google would Google your pic and try to match it to an image.  I’ve tried it a few times with no success, but I thought what if I took a picture of this menu card (pictured).  Could Google automatically deliver the translation?  Well, almost.
After I snapped the picture and asked Google to translate, I got the following results:  ”freshly filled boodle.”  Close, the actual translation is “fresh sandwiches.”  I don’t know, boodle has a nice ring to it.  Maybe I’ll tell Baker Bart about it.  

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