Google has launched a hieroglyphics translator that uses machine learning to decode ancient Egyptian language.
The feature has been added to its Arts & Culture app. It also allows users to translate their own words and emojis into shareable hieroglyphs.
Google says Fabricius is the first such tool to be trained via machine learning "to make sense of what a hieroglyph is".
In theory, it should improve over time as more people use it.
'Grand claims'
A desktop version of Fabricius is also being offered to professional Egyptologists, anthropologists and historians, to support their research.
One expert welcomed the initiative but said its "grand claims" needed to be viewed in context.
"While impressive, it is not yet at the point where it replaces the need for a highly trained expert in reading ancient inscriptions," said Dr Roland Enmarch, a senior lecturer in Egyptology, at the University of Liverpool.
"There remain some very big obstacles to reading hieroglyphs, because they are handcrafted and vary enormously over time in level of pictorial detail and between individual carvers/painters.
"Still, this is a step on the road."
Decipher findings
The software's Workbench tool allows the user to upload photos of real hieroglyphs found on artefacts and digitally enhance the images to better analyse the symbols.
Users can trace the outlines of hieroglyphics, which the software then tries to match up with similar symbols in its database - allowing them to search for different meaning
Source: BBC

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