World Lens is a really interesting iPhone App from Quest Visual.
“Word Lens can instantly translates printed words from one language to another using the video camera on your iPhone. No network delay, no roaming fees, and no reception problems.
Word Lens is a dictionary -- evolved. It looks up words for you, and shows them in context. You can use Word Lens on your vacations to translate restaurant menus, street signs, and other things that have clearly printed words.
Word Lens has its limits. Sometimes the translation will have mistakes, and may be hard to understand, but it usually gets the point across. If a translation fails, there is a way to manually look up words by typing them in”.
The problem is it’s not as free as it says it is. Anyone tried this and does it work? It’s a great idea – particularly because it doesn’t rely on data charges once it is downloaded.
I’ve embedded the promotion video below:
It works beautifully Ollie - indeed I have high hopes that the Russian > English pack will be out before March so I can trust my life to it!
I speak enough Spanish to know that the translation is VERY hit and miss, but it is near enough for the casual "get the gist" level of use for signs (not ideal whilst driving...), menus, posters etc
I was actually really blown away by the level of work put into making it appear like proper AI and not just throwing plain text on the screen or something, that is the visual wow for most people I've shown it to.
Posted by: Guyshearer | December 23, 2010 at 10:36 AM
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/12/17/word-lens-augmented.html
Posted by: John McLear | December 23, 2010 at 03:38 PM