Close on the heels of a major update to the Google mobile search page, Google has announced the addition of a new tool – image-based text translation - in its Google Goggles Android application. Earlier, at the Mobile World Congress in February, Google had announced text recognition as a trial feature for Goggles.

The new image-based text translation feature has been integrated into the new 1.1 version of the Goggles app; and enables users to get an instant text translation into a language of their choice, merely by pointing the camera of their phone any block of text.

About the new feature, Google has specified that it can, at present, identify image texts only in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian - though it will later be able to provide translation of texts into 17 different languages. Furthermore, the text translation tool will work only with handsets equipped with Android 1.6 or higher.

The new Google Goggles translation tool is fairly simple to use. Once users have downloaded the most recent version of the Goggles app, they only have to open the app and aim their phone at any text – be it a street sign or a menu or anything else - that they want translated.

The chances of a getting a good translation can be further enhanced by honing in on particular words and blocking out everything else.