Saturday, December 18, 2010

Word Lens: Augmented Reality App Translates Street Signs Instantly

Word Lens is to iPhone is one of the many extraordinary apps you have ever seen. Pay attention to this, but put down any prohibited liquids first.

It's an augmented-reality, OCR-capable interpretation app, but that's a bad description. A improved one would be "magic." World Lens looks at any printed content by the iPhone's camera, reads it, translates between Spanish and English. That's flattering splendid already - it does it in real time - but it moreover matches the color, rise and viewpoint of the text, and remaps it onto the image. It's as if the world itself has been translated.

Impressed? You're not the usually one. John Gruber of Daring Fireball puts it best: "[It's] as even though near-future time travelers proposed sending us apps instead of Terminators."

We've tested the app, and it functions just as shown in the video. In demo mode, it can file (or vacant out) any content in the camera's margin of vision. You must be buy interpretation packs to do the actual translation.

In our tests, it worked smoothly, nonetheless the difference had a bent to shake around a bit, switching between English and Spanish and flipping between swap translations. You could obtain the contents of a sentence, but not read it clearly. Holding the camera really solid helped alleviate the "wiggling" effect.

Word Lens is a ambience of scholarship fiction, something similar to a visible chronicle of the concept translator or the Babelfish. Only instead of being a available device to prevent film subtitles, it's a real, working tool.

Word Lens is free, and will do a few fancy rearranging of difference to uncover you how it works. The Spanish-English and English-Spanish dictionaries are in-app purchases, for $5 each, and the app runs offline - best for when you're traveling. You can collect your coffee back up, now.

Word Lens download [iTunes]

Word Lens product page [Quest Visual]

See Also:

Augmented Reality App Identifies Strangers With Camera

How it Works: Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality Hobo Signs? There's an App for That

Yelp Sneaks Augmented Reality Into iPhone App

Augmented Reality Ghost Hunting Creeps Into App Store

Bionic Eye: Augmented iPhone Awesomeness in App Store

Video: Nearest Subway App Overlays Virtual Maps on Real World …

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