Say you have some scribbles in an unfamiliar language you want to translate. Better find a native speaker. Or you could just turn to Google Translate, which now supports handwritten translation in 45 different languages.
It’s insanely simple. Go to the Google Translate page, select the language you’re working with, and go to the menu on the bottom left of the input window and select the pencil icon. You can then write out what you’re trying to translate, and Google will interpret. You could definitely see this being useful for translating notes or symbols from character-based languages if you don’t know how to actually type the word on your keyboard. Even if your handwriting is elementary-level chicken scratch. [Google]