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Word Lens Offers Real Time Language Translation
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Great Idea... Patented?
This is a great idea. Is any of the embedded technology patented? If not I expect a number of competitors. This could be the next "Red Laser"... make an app that's cool AND works well and you're minting a couple of new millionaires (even if it reuses 95% open source code
)
This is a great idea. Is any of the embedded technology patented? If not I expect a number of competitors. This could be the next "Red Laser"... make an app that's cool AND works well and you're minting a couple of new millionaires (even if it reuses 95% open source code
)
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Pretty cool concept - almost made me want to get an iOS device
Untill I read it was only available in Spanish which I know enough of
If the interpreter were available in Japanese, Korean, German, Arabic, French - I would finally buy an iOS device
I hope this app or similar apps would fully devolop soon
I never had a knack for foreign languages and something like this is really cool
Untill I read it was only available in Spanish which I know enough of
If the interpreter were available in Japanese, Korean, German, Arabic, French - I would finally buy an iOS device
I hope this app or similar apps would fully devolop soon
I never had a knack for foreign languages and something like this is really cool
I think it's kinda cheap to not include ANY language translation for free. If you want it to translate something and you have to buy the inapp purchase of $4.99 to get a language. Otherwise it just reverses or blanks out letters. Which is NOT the same as a translation.
Make it translate something odd, like english to Latin, Esparanto, or Klingon so that people can get the idea if it works or not.
Make it translate something odd, like english to Latin, Esparanto, or Klingon so that people can get the idea if it works or not.
So I've been testing it out this morning and found a couple interesting things:
1- It's true about that text that is bigger and blockier works better.
2- I tried typing out "CHRISTMAS TIME" in Arial Black and it worked perfectly showing "SAMTSIRHC EMIT"... However when I typed in "SAMTSIRHC EMIT" to see if it would give the correction back it only showed "TIME" correctly. When I tried reversing "KCUF OUY" I didn't get any of the words to display correctly. Perhaps a censoring filter?
3- The camera lens region gets pretty warm while using the app. Must be due to the constant focusing.
1- It's true about that text that is bigger and blockier works better.
2- I tried typing out "CHRISTMAS TIME" in Arial Black and it worked perfectly showing "SAMTSIRHC EMIT"... However when I typed in "SAMTSIRHC EMIT" to see if it would give the correction back it only showed "TIME" correctly. When I tried reversing "KCUF OUY" I didn't get any of the words to display correctly. Perhaps a censoring filter?
3- The camera lens region gets pretty warm while using the app. Must be due to the constant focusing.
I can't find it on the app store? Is it because I am still using the stone tablet iPhone? aka a 3g
NM found it. Of course it isn't 3G compatible...
NM found it. Of course it isn't 3G compatible...
They probably wrote what they wanted to in English, got the awful translation in Spanish, and then printed the signs in Spanish.
It's good for what it is, and I'm sure it can get you out of a jam, but the translation presented in the ad was bad.
For the next ad, which might involve say English and French for example, get someone that actually speaks both languages up to some good standard and have that person write something that can be understood in both languages.
I expect a direct word for word translation algorithm for signs will be adequate.
Given the objective of this app. Contextual translation of course is better.
I don't think one is likely to encounter or be bothered by the "water goat" translation issue that language programmers refer to.
Given the objective of this app. Contextual translation of course is better.
I don't think one is likely to encounter or be bothered by the "water goat" translation issue that language programmers refer to.
Syntax is all messed up
I guess whomever is giving accolades to this application don't know much about Spanish grammar and syntax. The translations are too literal and don't take into account the idioms or syntactic differences. The examples provided in the article have laughable translations that could only make sense to some Spanish speaking person who is also versed in English. The examples they give from Spanish to English are clearly tailored, they probably wrote them in English first, then translated them to broken Spanish and then back to English. I wouldn't expect this tool to translate anything complex from Spanish to English without messing up the meaning big time. Probably good for single words or very simple sentences, i.e. airport signs, street signs.
I guess whomever is giving accolades to this application don't know much about Spanish grammar and syntax. The translations are too literal and don't take into account the idioms or syntactic differences. The examples provided in the article have laughable translations that could only make sense to some Spanish speaking person who is also versed in English. The examples they give from Spanish to English are clearly tailored, they probably wrote them in English first, then translated them to broken Spanish and then back to English. I wouldn't expect this tool to translate anything complex from Spanish to English without messing up the meaning big time. Probably good for single words or very simple sentences, i.e. airport signs, street signs.
I haven't tried this App or even downloaded it, but correct me if I'm wrong - doesn't it say NO INTERNET CONNECTION NEEDED? Why do people make comments like this without even reading about it or even doing something as simple as watching a video?
NASA is promoting "pocket airports".
And linking your post to another's, research on contact-lens displays is well under way.
That's a relatively minor problem. Getting the "augmented reality" app to find text in a video feed, OCR it, generate maching size/font/etc. text, and replacing the original text with the new is a HUGE breakthrough. Plugging in a better translator is just a matter of, well, plugging in a better translator (not so much this app's problem as coordinating this with an auto-translate project).
Great example of "disruptive technology". Yeah it has its problems, but it's just the first version presented more as a workable demo than a hardcore rely-on-this product. The breakthrough has been shown, now it's just stepwise refinments.
They should make a version that translates english to ADD so that you would see that both the site and video point out that no network connection is needed.....
OCR must be looking for legitimate words to reverse, a sensible approach to filtering out garbage (if it identifies something as "text" but can't find it in the dictionary, assume it's not text). Notice that "EMIT" is in fact a word.
Those translations aren't very good. This software doesn't interpret the sense of the sentence.
For example: francesas patatas fritas should be patatas fritas, if not it would be like french "french fries".
I hope those translations get better, but great concept!
For example: francesas patatas fritas should be patatas fritas, if not it would be like french "french fries".
I hope those translations get better, but great concept!
Just tried it out with some text on my monitor and keyboard keys. It had a couple of issues, but was still pretty impressive. It had no problem at all with the keyboard which was surprising especially considering the low light. Got some crazy results on some of the punctuation keys.
The app looks like it still needs work going forward, but the implications and even its current state are pretty damn impressive.
The app looks like it still needs work going forward, but the implications and even its current state are pretty damn impressive.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)
I second the props for pleco. Their Chinese language tools are great and the live OCR on non-roman characters is a lifesaver.
sunhou said:
I second the props for pleco. Their Chinese language tools are great and the live OCR on non-roman characters is a lifesaver.