The techie magazine has tested Google’s new photo translation tool – and the verdict is lukewarm.

“Google Goggles” is the search engine giant’s new “image-based text translation” system. The feature is, well, relatively simple — from a 2010 point of view. You just turn on the application, take a picture of text with your mobile phone, and Google Goggles does the translation for you.

Or at least it tries to. In reality, the Goggles’ vision can easily blur.

On May the 7th, PCWorld journalist JR Raphael published the results of a “test drive.” There have been many reviews printed about the new application, but I especially like Raphael’s because it contains precise screenshots as well as directions about how to use the system. And yes, the fact that the article’s first example was a French to English translation also struck my fancy.

Raphael recounts how, in a rush to try out the new toy, he “grabbed” the first foreign language document he could find: French text from a product registration card.

“The app did detect that the original text was in French. But its translation wasn’t exactly in English,” writes Raphael. Here is the beginning of the translated version:

“‘Thank you cl’avoir bought this Sony product. Ifenregistrement Sony product is fast, easy and secure, and allows us to create pcrte or stolen produces a file that can be used in case of p dc…'”

I’ll stop there — I’m sure you get the picture.

It’s important to understand the limits of machine translation — and to contact a qualified language service agency.