December 18, 2010

Word Lens Translates Words Inside of Images. Yes Really.

Ever been confused at a restaurant in a foreign country and wish you could just scan your menu with your iPhone and get an instant translation? Well as of today you are one step closer thanks to Word Lens from QuestVisual.

The iPhone app, which hit iTunes last night, is the culmination of 2 1/2 years of work from founders Otavio Good and John DeWeese. The paid app, which currently offers only English to Spanish and Spanish to English translation for $4.99, uses Optical Character Recognition technology to execute something which might as well be magic. This is what the future, literally, looks like.

Founder Good explains the app’s process simply, “It tries to find out what the letters are and then looks in the dictionary. Then it draws the words back on the screen in translation.” Right now the app is mostly word for word translation, useful if you’re looking to get the gist of something like a dish on a menu or what a road sign says.

At the moment the only existing services even remotely like this are Pleco, a Chinese learning app and a feature on Google Goggles where you can snap a stillshot and send that in for translation. Word Lens is currently self-funded.

Good says that the obvious steps for Word Lens’ future is to get more languages in. He’s planning on incorporating major European languages and is also thinking about other potential uses including a reader for the blind, “I wouldn’t be surprised if we did French next, Italian and since my mom is Brazilian, Portuguese.”

Says Good, modestly, “The translation isn’t perfect, but it gets the point across.” You can try it out for yourself here.

30 comments:

  1. saw that on macrumors. superneat.

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  2. Quite possibly the most useful app ever created. Holy shit... amazing.

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  3. Wow! Is this available for the Ipod too?

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  4. @ToxicPuppy

    Yes, it's also available on the iPod Touch!

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  5. Something like this has been needed for a loonnnggg time.

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  6. It would be nice to see this on the android market. I love working with Google Goggles, but haven't tried sending anything for translation.

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  7. I just saw a video about this on wimp. It's mind blowing.

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  8. is there anything the iphone cant do

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  9. would be handy on trips and holidays, too bad i dont have iphone :S

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  10. oh crazy technology man loved it

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  11. Thats cool, mind if I use this on my website? ( I'll put your blog as the Source)

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  12. Damn that's cool. Actually seems really useful. I wonder how many hipsters are just going to buy it for shits and giggles.

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  13. like some of the google translator fouls are there too... but still pretty good

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  14. @tigey

    Also, if you want me to send you the html code of the post, just send me an e-mail at conceptualgadget@hotmail.com

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  15. thats pretty cool. about time they came out with this. that guitar u have down ther looks pretty fucking badass too... i wonder if it makes playing guitar easier

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  16. I read about this earlier but didn't really see the full capability of it until I saw your post, thanks!

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  17. this looks really handy, but i have a feeling that it will mess up quite a bit...

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  18. wow...that is really cool. i never thought i'd see something like this so soon!

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  19. They need to make this for asian languages

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  20. this looks like a big deal, glad some genius finally took this up.

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