Decode Ancient Egyptian Language With Google’s Latest AI-Powered Hieroglyphics Translator

Those who are intrigued by the mysteries of ancient Egyptian language and history, we have some good news for you. Google’s hieroglyphics translator can now help you decode the riddles of time-worn Egyptian phrases. By Kumar Shree

What’s The Buzz

Google has recently launched an AI-powered hieroglyphics translator called Fabricius. The new translator comes as part of Google’s Art & Culture application. It can help you decode the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs that were written ages ago. The app can also help you translate words and emojis into sharable hieroglyphs; something we would love to explore. Google has also trained this app via machine learning, which enables it to evolve and improve as more users join in.

 

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Google is also offering a desktop version of the hieroglyphics translator to Egyptologists, anthropologists, and historians. While experts recognise this software as a significant step in the direction of decoding hieroglyphs, they also reinstate that the translator cannot overshadow the need for a highly-trained expert in reading these ancient inscriptions.

As reported by BBC, Dr Roland Enmarch, a senior lecturer in Egyptology at the University of Liverpool said, “There remain some very big obstacles to reading hieroglyphs because they are handcrafted and vary enormously over time in the level of pictorial detail and between individual carvers/painters.”

Tools Of The Trade

The application also offers a Workbench tool that allows the users to upload pictures of the hieroglyphs and digitally enhance them. This will allow the software to better identify and match the symbols with those in the database and come up with better meanings that are closer to what was originally written.

 

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The application makes things even better by enabling the users to annotate and retouch the faded symbols in Workbench. Dr Alex Woods, from the Australian Centre for Egyptology who has helped in developing the tool said, “Digitising textual material that was up until now only in handwritten books will completely revolutionise how Egyptologists do business.”

The app is currently available in English and Arabic languages.

Related: You Will Soon Be Able To Take Virtual Tours Of 60 Ancient Temples In Kashi