Word Lens
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| Original author(s) | Otavio Good |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Otavio Good, John DeWeese, Maia Good, Bryan Lin, Eric Park |
| Initial release | December 16, 2010 |
| Stable release |
2.2.3 / April 18, 2014
|
| Written in | C++, Objective-C, C#, ARM Assembly, Java |
| Operating system | Apple iOS 6.1+, Android 2.3.3+ |
| Platform | iPhone 3GS+, iPod Touch 4+, iPad 2+, Android phones, Google Glass |
| Size | 43.3 MB |
| Available in | English ↔ Spanish, English ↔ French, English ↔ Italian, English ↔ German, English ↔ Portuguese, English ↔ Russian |
| Type | Translation software |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | http://questvisual.com |
Word Lens was an augmented reality translation application from Quest Visual. Word Lens used the built-in cameras on smartphones and similar devices to quickly scan and identify foreign text (such as that found in a sign or a menu), and then translate and display the words in another language on the device's display. The words were displayed in the original context on the original background, and the translation was performed in real-time without connection to the internet. For example, using the viewfinder of a camera to show a shop sign on a smartphone's display would result in a real-time image of the shop sign being displayed, but the words shown on the sign would be the translated words instead of the original foreign words.
Until early 2015, the application was available for the Apple's iPhone, iPod, and iPad, as well as for a selection of Android smartphones. The application was free on Apple's iTunes, but an in-app purchase was necessary to enable translation capabilities. On Google Play, there were both the free demo and the full translation-enabled versions of the application. At Google's unveiling of its Glass Development Kit in November 2013, translation capabilities of Word Lens were also demonstrated on Google Glass. According to the January 2014 New York Times article, Word Lens was free for Google Glass.
Google, Inc. acquired Quest Visual on May 16, 2014 in order to incorporate Word Lens into its Google Translate service. As a result, all Word Lens language packs were available free of charge until January 2015. The details of the acquisition have not been released. Word Lens feature was incorporated into the Google Translate app and released on January 14, 2015.
Word Lens is an augmented reality application that recognizes printed words using its optical character recognition capabilities and instantly translates these words into the desired language. This application does not require connection to the internet. In its default mode, Word Lens performs real-time translation, but can be paused to display a single frame or to look up alternative translations of each specific word in that frame. It is also possible to use the built-in dictionary to manually type in words that need to be translated.
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