Word Lens — Augmented Reality Translation

Barence writes "PC Pro has a review of a new augmented reality iPhone app that translates from Spanish to English on the fly. 'Point the camera at a decent-sized chunk of Spanish text and within a couple of seconds you'll get a rough and ready translation,' said the reviewer. 'And most magnificently of all, the translation is overlaid, at the correct size, on the original object.' The team behind the project has produced a video of Word Lens in action."

Comments

Not going to lie

[FredFredrickson]

This is pretty damn cool. But no android app. No news if they plan on releasing one. In fact, their site is pretty void of any information at all. I would buy this just to play with it, but I'll never be an iphone guy.

Re:Not going to lie

[Stele]

Also, the API is basically C (Objective C++). I had no trouble pulling in a ton of my existing C++ imaging code and just compiling it right up, layering a nice UIKit UI over it.

I have an Android phone, but I'll have to learn Java and *PORT* my C++ code to it.

Re:Not going to lie

[macs4all]

But considering more Android devices are selling every day than iPhones

I saw what you did there. Compare "Android DEVICES" to "iOS DEVICES", and I'm sure that your statement will be false.

, it shouldn't be long before Android catches up, and probably passes Apple.

Maybe phone vs. phone. But then there's the iPod Touch and iPad (so far) to consider. And it really doesn't impress me that ten cellphone manufacturers can "outsell" ONE.

But iOS still has far more "brand recognition" than Android will EVER have, and the number of PHONES sold isn't the issue: It is how many of those phone-owners actually purchase APPS. And the fractionalized nature of the Android "model" (which is actually no model at all) all-but-assures that Android will always be a distant second to Apple as far as App development (and more importantly, APP SALE$$$) is concerned.

Especially considering there are 3 official app markets for Android, and you can install apps from anywhere and are not limited to just the official markets.

Which the average consumer cares ZERO about. How many times does this have to be pointed out? In fact, most consumers LIKE the "Curated Collection" and "One-Stop-Shopping" FEATURES that the Apple AppStore gives them.

If this were NOT the case, Apple would have never even considered bringing up a Mac AppStore. Time will tell if the business model will translate to a desktop platform, and, considering that OS X devs. will not HAVE to sell their Mac apps that way, whether consumers will embrace or ignore a non-"exclusive" distribution channel. But my money sez that it will be at least a moderate success.

One of the things that most consumers absolutely HATE is having to SEARCH a bunch of places for stuff. So, when you tout the fractionalized Android distribution model as a "feature", you have absolutely ignored how the general public felt about a similar "feature" of Windows: Having to SCOUR the tubes for "Drivers". The Android "distribution" model (which, is actually no "model" at all) is that same failed idea. Same as it ever was.

Face it. Apple really did something quite rare in business: Created a completely new and successful business model. And, pretty much nailed it.

the cool thing is that it's so cheap

[alen]

i remember the days when all the new cool tech was only seen in the government and large corporations first and then trickled down to us peons. these days with our rampant consumerism it's the opposite. we see cool stuff like this first and it's cheap and the big boys are now playing catch up because things move so fast

if it wasn't for our vane consumerism this would be a government project costing tens of millions of $$$ in R&D and the devices would be single use devices that also cost some ridiculous amount of money

Re:Monty Pythons Hungarian Translation Book

[wjousts]

Indeed. Sometimes a bad translation is worse than no translation since it might convince you that you do actually understand the foreign text.

The killer app for augmented reality

[psydeshow]

These guys just opened a gold mine.

I'm sure there will be a ton of cynical and jaded comments here, but this is a working prototype of augmented reality that is actually immediately and unquestionably useful, even in its infant state. Even non-technical people can see the promise of this, and graspable promise equals investment.

Bravo, and congratulations to the developers!

Another story about how badly it works

[smooth wombat]

Just read this on MSNBC. The author shows what happens when trying it on basic Spanish.

Overall, not worth the money until it gets heavily reworked.

Re:Another story about how badly it works

[pushing-robot]

In the future it would be nice if sign makers were required to include a data matrix in some corner, and put various translations into an online database. That way, any device with the most rudimentary camera and data service could translate it accurately, and it would be a lot cleaner than putting multilingual signs everywhere.