Point, Shoot and Translate into English

edstromp points out this New York Times "story on using a pocket pc to translate a street sign. It requires at least a dialup connection as it sends the photo to a server for the majority of the processing: OCR, translation, English overlay for new image, and then transmission back to the user. All said and done, it takes about 15 seconds to translate a street sign. Put this with some augumented reality, and you have a rather useful tool."

Comments

15 seconds later..

[MongooseCN]

While driving along some roads...

Take a picture of that sign and see what it says.

-15 seconds later-

"STOP"

Re:It just might be possible

[AndroidCat]

Heh, I was on the phone to me mom last night, and she mentioned that a step-cousin was in the Special Olympics (sadly under-reported in the news). Of course the phone was by the computer, and a quick Google, and *poof*, I had all the info about him and his history. (Never met him, never knew I had him. From his record, he can take a take an injury, a fall and try, try again. Good on him!)

And then there was the time an ex-girl friend (it was complex) had left my place and got stuck on the 401 (imagine 101 for Californians) and called me on her cell phone. Zap! Connected to the traffic-cam system, told her that after a few miles it cleared up.

Gawd damn, I'm a chair-bound Steve Mann!

As for dating, perhaps head-mounted traffic lights? And if someone's pupils are visible while while they traverse their menues, j00 4r3 0nw3d! Capture software to match against menu software.