Screenshot-Sharing APP for translation purpose : automatically share a screenshot with MS-Translator ?

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seminnov
  • Forum posts: 1

Sep 12, 2018, 8:24:53 AM via Website

I am currently working in a foreign country (China) and even if I am learning the language (slowly), I am a totally lost in translation...
Fortunately, translation apps are working very well : I use a local translation device to speak with people (IFLYTEK easytrans 800) and Microsoft Translator on my smartphone (when the network is good).

A lot of (chinese) local apps are showing text content as images, or a complicated combination of images and text... and in order to translate this mixed content, I use this workaround : I take a screenshot in my local app X and share it with MS-Translator which shows me the translation on top of the screenshot. Then I delete the screenshot and go back in my local app X to continue my reading. It works very well but takes me a long time when I have to repeat 20 times the same process :'(

I am aware of the news that : Now, Google Translation is automatically integrated in a lot of Android Apps. But (1) this is not happening in my (chinese) local apps (never!) and (2) I think that Google Translation feature inside the app will only translate the text and not the images. Therefore, I have no other solution than continuing to use my (time consuming) workaround.

MY QUESTION IS : Is there some Android "bridge"-App that could automate my workaround by creating a bridge between my app X and MS-Translator ? That is to say : translating what I currently see in my app X by sending a screenshot to MS-Translator ?

More precisely, let's consider a user reading a content shown in an app X, this "bridge"-App could behave the following way...
When the "bridge"-App is running in the background :

  • if the user takes a screenshot :
    1) the "bridge"-App listens to the right combination of buttons on the smartphone (for me Galaxy A5 : the fingerprint button + on/off button) then it captures the result (i.e. the picture) of the "screenshot" event happening in the app X
    2) then the "bridge"-App shares the screenshot with MS-Translator, and opens the MS-Translator app to show the translation to the user (the MS-Translator app gets the focus and is shown on top of the app X)
  • if the user has finished to read the translation, it will close MS-Translator : at this time, the "bridge"-App will capture the "close" event in the MS-Translator App, and :
    1) the "bridge"-App delete the screenshot
    2) the "bridge"-App opens the initial app X back and presents it to the user, in order for him to continue its reading (the app X gets the focus now).
    etc...

If no such "bridge"-App exists, maybe someone could be motivated enough to program it ? ;-)
I would also be very interested to read the source code (I do not know anything about Android programming but I am a Java developper).
That would be very kind !
Cheers :-)

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