We all know that Google is seriously researching universal language translation software. This is why their latest April fool’s joke is hardly surprising to see. The “Google Translate for Animals” application may sound like something out of a children’s cartoon, but it is also something that Google might be taking seriously.
As part of the joke, Google even has a small marketing blurb for the app: “Built on the Android mobile operating system, Translate for Animals is an application for your phone that recognizes and transcribes common words and phrases that are common to a species, like cats, for example.”
Of course, recording animal sounds, gauging acoustic qualities and sending it to the Google server for comparison and analysis is pretty farfetched. But the concept is something that the company is obviously looking into. Though this may even be more effective as an augmented reality application as it will not only record sound, but also analyze the body language of the animal –which is part of communication for many non-human species.
Anyway, the April Fools application does not work but it is available for down and should provide a bit of healthy fun for anyone who has a pet or two. Animal lovers would certainly get a kick out of the joke as well.
For now, the Android operating system still has a lot to catch up with in order to compete with the iPhone OS. Considering that the iPhone OS 4.0 is coming (and it has shown multi asking capabilities –not quite an April fool’s joke as some might say) Google still has plenty of developing to do. Even with the open source nature of the Android, Google still has to provide a more marketable atmosphere for developers (who prefer the App store as the iPhone has more people willing to purchase online content).
If you have not tried downloading the Translate for Animals application, try giving it a go.
For the full details on Google’s April Fools App, go to Tech Radar.
Tags: Android-Animal-Translation, AppleiPhone, April-Fools, Google