Google Buys Visual Translation App 'Word Lens', Makes It Free for Limited Time

[MonstaMash]

Maybe he is saying it's too bad that Google bought it because apple should have bought them out first. Which would mean kntegration into the camera app etc. now we just can dream and see if they make the app android only from here on in.

Why should Apple have bought it? Apple doesn't have the translation software backend like Google does. They can't compete.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Works fairly well for things like signs and the like, which seems to be the kind of thing it was meant for (at least the main scenario behind it). As far as translations, they can be a bit off at times one the sense that for the most part each word is done separately without specifically being able to get more context from multiple words and phrases tofether, which would be somewhat complex for something like this I'd imagine.

Yes, two or three words at a time. That's about the limit. Anything like a sentence and the results will be a nonsense, and just moving the device a little changes the translation. Maybe Google will figure out how to advance this tech and make it really useful, or maybe they will just get bored with it.

 

[Epic Xbox Revie]

Well that Apple ad also has a fake heart rate monitor based on your camera sooooo it's not the worst thing in the world.

 

[C DM]

Well that Apple ad also has a fake heart rate monitor based on your camera sooooo it's not the worst thing in the world.

Except that it's far from fake and works quite well.

 

[avanpelt]

I'd love to try this app; but I'm still getting the IAP error when trying to download language packs.

I've tried signing out of my account in Settings --> App Store, going back to the app, trying to make an IAP, and when I sign in, it says that my account could not be found or the password is incorrect.

If I go back to Settings --> App Store and sign into my account there using the same credentials, it signs in fine.

Are there any other settings I need to look for relating to enabling IAPs on my Apple account?

EDIT: Well, my iPad let me make the IAPs fine and my iPhone and iPad use the same account so I know it's not an account issue. I guess I'll wipe and restore my 5s to see if that fixes the problem.

 

[Vanilla35]

The trouble with 9to5mac is it looks **** in comparison to macrumours. Sure the content is there but the layout on macbook and iPhone is poor in comparison to macrumours who have it so right and don't even think about comparing the forums.

macrumours is way more pleasing on the eye and thats important.

Apparently my comment was taken the wrong way (as the mod removed it). I meant it as in saying, "in addition". I completely agree macrumors is set up much better.

 

[weckart]

Word Lens has always been free. They charge for the language modules. Perhaps MR could help us out here and tell us what has actually changed. I tried it in Italy last year. Though the tech has a real coolness factor, I'd rate it as only modestly useful in real-world situations. Many of the translations are actually quite comical, so if you want a laugh in a foreign country, it is really quite excellent.

This. The translation back end is rather poor. Just to take an example, point your camera at the English translation of the Russian sign in the OP and translate back to Russian. Not a single word of the original is replicated since the original translation from Russian translates the word 'stop' as 'parking' and the translation engine has little concept of grammar.

The actual rendering of the translations into the original images is impressive. If Google can somehow work in its own translation engine into the works then it will improve the app no end.

 

[AppleP59]

Word Lens has always been free. They charge for the language modules. Perhaps MR could help us out here and tell us what has actually changed. I tried it in Italy last year. Though the tech has a real coolness factor, I'd rate it as only modestly useful in real-world situations. Many of the translations are actually quite comical, so if you want a laugh in a foreign country, it is really quite excellent.

The language modules are free too.

 

[Parasprite]

I'd love to try this app; but I'm still getting the IAP error when trying to download language packs.

I've tried signing out of my account in Settings --> App Store, going back to the app, trying to make an IAP, and when I sign in, it says that my account could not be found or the password is incorrect.

If I go back to Settings --> App Store and sign into my account there using the same credentials, it signs in fine.

Are there any other settings I need to look for relating to enabling IAPs on my Apple account?

EDIT: Well, my iPad let me make the IAPs fine and my iPhone and iPad use the same account so I know it's not an account issue. I guess I'll wipe and restore my 5s to see if that fixes the problem.

Can you do IAP on any other app?
Did you try closing Word Lens and reopening it?
Did you try just restarting the phone?

 

[Carlanga]

Why should Apple have bought it? Apple doesn't have the translation software backend like Google does. They can't compete.

so you are saying because they lack the strength of google in translations that they then should resign to not even bother to improve and even add new stuff that competitors would not have if bought… sure

 

[avanpelt]

Can you do IAP on any other app?
Did you try closing Word Lens and reopening it?
Did you try just restarting the phone?

Just restored my phone from an iCloud backup and now I'm able to download the language packs just fine.

 

[CFreymarc]

This is one of those big time "techno shock" apps that totally freak out casual technology users. Not only does it translate, but it recognizes text from an image (OCR) and the presents the translation in the graphical context of the picture (scene rendering) very well. I used with translating Vietnamese to English. The waiter seeing the app translating the menu to English screamed in a near panic.

 

[Parasprite]

so you are saying because they lack the strength of google in translations that they then should resign to not even bother to improve and even add new stuff that competitors would not have if bought… sure

Maybe you have a point, what with Maps turning out as well as it did.

 

[springsup]

You expected meaningless company and/or product names to be translated or to be translated correctly (when they have no translation to begin with)?

No, but I would have expected it to translate "Colorwaschmittel".

Instead, it turned "Colour" in to "Color" and "Actilift" in to "Eel poison".

I tried it on a box of cereal just now, and it turned "Premium" in to "PremiAbout" ('um' means about in German).

Tried it on a bottle of flavoured water, and all it did was to turn "Bad Brambacher" in to "Ambergris Wild Sowr".

Imagine you had absolutely zero idea what the original thing meant - such as a country where you didn't even recognise the alphabet. You'd be totally lost. There would be bags of eel poison on the store shelves and bottled Ambergris in the fridge.

I can't imagine why Google bought this. Surely they could do better word recognition on their own (I know they use computer vision to read road signs from street view images, for example). In my experience using this today, not one thing was adequately translated so I'd know what it said if I didn't have a clue.

 

[lk400]

Cyrillic is non-roman and that's what Russian uses.

Yes I know I meant in addition to the Russian characters I mentioned. Sorry I was not clear. Incidentally English is not my language!

 

[ZhenyaF]

I tried to duplicate what's in the picture and the translation doesn't come out to be the same.

 

[MonstaMash]

so you are saying because they lack the strength of google in translations that they then should resign to not even bother to improve and even add new stuff that competitors would not have if bought… sure

I just feel like translation software wouldn't align with Apple's strengths or focuses. They did an "OK" job with Maps (arguably the best, non-Google mapping system out there) but its still behind Google Maps. Apple should team up with Yahoo! for online services and get Yahoo! to do the leg work, so to speak, with mapping.

 

[C DM]

No, but I would have expected it to translate "Colorwaschmittel".

Instead, it turned "Colour" in to "Color" and "Actilift" in to "Eel poison".

I tried it on a box of cereal just now, and it turned "Premium" in to "PremiAbout" ('um' means about in German).

Tried it on a bottle of flavoured water, and all it did was to turn "Bad Brambacher" in to "Ambergris Wild Sowr".

Imagine you had absolutely zero idea what the original thing meant - such as a country where you didn't even recognise the alphabet. You'd be totally lost. There would be bags of eel poison on the store shelves and bottled Ambergris in the fridge.

I can't imagine why Google bought this. Surely they could do better word recognition on their own (I know they use computer vision to read road signs from street view images, for example). In my experience using this today, not one thing was adequately translated so I'd know what it said if I didn't have a clue.

Well, perhaps to improve and add on to the technology. Maybe even use it for Google Glass in some way. Maybe mostly for intellectual property (patents, technology, etc.) so that when they do use it in Google Glass or something like that they wouldn't have to reinvent it from the beginning or pay some sort or licensing fees.

 

[iolinux333]

Probably more like $30-$40 million, since this is a pure tech company. You only get into big numbers when you're dealing with an app with a large userbase.

It's a shame Apple didn't buy this; it would've been an easy win. This is valuable tech, innovative enough for Apple to feature in their own commercials, and yet they left it sitting on the table for Google to snap up. I don't understand Apple's acquisition strategy sometimes -- they tend to focus their acquisitions on hardware and manufacturing companies, and the few software companies they buy (aside from NeXT) have not been impressive (looking at you, Chomp). Even though objectively speaking, Apple is falling behind in certain areas as compared with Google's software and services.

I wish they'd throw a few pennies at swype instead of billions for hiphoppering.

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we need something like this for voice too where it on the fly figures out whatever language someone is speaking and then with a button press translates it into any other language and repeats it.

I'm pretty sure there's already an app for that - not sure how well it works though.

 

[n-evo]

we need something like this for voice too where it on the fly figures out whatever language someone is speaking and then with a button press translates it into any other language and repeats it.

iTranslate Voice?

 

[groovyd]

iTranslate Voice?

awesome... didn't know about that. thanks!

 

[kds1]

This is one of those big time "techno shock" apps that totally freak out casual technology users. Not only does it translate, but it recognizes text from an image (OCR) and the presents the translation in the graphical context of the picture (scene rendering) very well. I used with translating Vietnamese to English. The waiter seeing the app translating the menu to English screamed in a near panic.

Vietnamese? Where's the language pack for that?

 

[powerstrokin]

No, but I would have expected it to translate "Colorwaschmittel".

Instead, it turned "Colour" in to "Color" and "Actilift" in to "Eel poison".

I tried it on a box of cereal just now, and it turned "Premium" in to "PremiAbout" ('um' means about in German).

Tried it on a bottle of flavoured water, and all it did was to turn "Bad Brambacher" in to "Ambergris Wild Sowr".

Imagine you had absolutely zero idea what the original thing meant - such as a country where you didn't even recognise the alphabet. You'd be totally lost. There would be bags of eel poison on the store shelves and bottled Ambergris in the fridge.

I can't imagine why Google bought this. Surely they could do better word recognition on their own (I know they use computer vision to read road signs from street view images, for example). In my experience using this today, not one thing was adequately translated so I'd know what it said if I didn't have a clue.

I think you're doing it wrong, actually.

If it's turning English words into badly translated English words with a hint of German, then I think you have the app set to translate from German to English and are trying to input actual English words.

Set the app to translate from English to German and try again.

Makes sense in my head anyways.. Don't know why else it would be showing you English words when you're already pointing the camera at English.

 

[Parasprite]

I think you're doing it wrong, actually.

If it's turning English words into badly translated English words with a hint of German, then I think you have the app set to translate from German to English and are trying to input actual English words.

Set the app to translate from English to German and try again.

Makes sense in my head anyways.. Don't know why else it would be showing you English words when you're already pointing the camera at English.

Try the app, this is exactly what it does. Basically, in order to get any idea of what the translation is, you need to carefully hold your finger over the pause button and press it without moving the camera even slightly.

If it doesn't detect the whole word, it throws out the rest. Even printed text in the best of light and perspective will have chunks only partially translated and changes several words at a time with the slightest movement. The result is extremely inconsistent translations.

That isn't to say it doesn't have potential, I trust that Google are going to give it a good bit of attention before we see it come to fruition.

 

[SlCKB0Y]

It's a long way from perfect in my experience. I find it struggles mightily to give you more than a few words at a time, and that's only if the text you are translating is quite clear, and you can hold the iPhone or iPad very steady. Even so the accuracy isn't very good and the words it comes up with can be hilariously wrong.

What language have you tried?

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we need something like this for voice too where it on the fly figures out whatever language someone is speaking and then with a button press translates it into any other language and repeats it.

Google translate has realtime voice translation in the pipeline....