| Original author(s) | Otavio Good |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Otavio Good, John DeWeese, Maia Good |
| Initial release | December 16, 2010 |
| Stable release | 1.1 / December 14, 2011 |
| Written in | C++, Objective-C, C#, ARM Assembly |
| Operating system | Apple iOS 4.0+ |
| Platform | iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch (4th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G |
| Size | 13.8 MB |
| Available in | English, Spanish, French |
| Type | Translation software |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | http://questvisual.com |
Word Lens is an augmented reality translation application for the iPhone from Quest Visual.[1] Word Lens uses the built-in phone camera to identify text, such as a sign or a menu, in one language and have the words shown translated into another language. The words are displayed in the original context on the original background, and the translation is performed in real-time without connection to the internet. Word Lens 1.0 was released on December 16, 2010,[2] and received significant amount of attention soon after,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] including Wired,[10] The Economist,[11] CNN,[12][13] The New York Times,[14][15] Forbes,[16] The Wall Street Journal,[17] MIT Technology Review,[18] and ~2.5 million views on You Tube in the first 6 days.[16] Since the application held a #1 position on the lists of Top Free Apps and Top Grossing Apps on Apple Inc.'s iTunes for a few days following its release, it is currently described as Top In App Purchases.[19] This application is currently available as Word Lens 1.1.[19]
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According to the description,[19] Word Lens is an application which recognizes words using its optical character recognition capabilities and instantly translates these words into the desired language. It requires iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, or iPod Touch with a video camera.[8]
At the release on December 16, 2010, only English and Spanish were supported, but other language dictionaries were planned,[13] with European languages expected first.[5] French was released on December 14, 2011.[20][21]
A free version is available however, it only contains the 2 demo modes: erasing words or reversing words. Each language pack (e.g. either English-to-Spanish, or Spanish-to-English) must be purchased separately.[3][14]
Even though Word Lens was initially released for iPhone only, Quest Visual planned to expand to Android, Windows Phone 7, Palm, and BlackBerry,[5][7] with Android likely to be targeted first.[16]
According to its description, Word Lens is best used on clearly printed text and was not designed to translate handwritten or stylized fonts. This application was created to help tourists understand signs and menus, and it is not 100% accurate. The developer Otavio Good commented: "I will be the first to say that it’s not perfect, but perfect was not the goal". However, testers who took the app to other countries said it had been useful.[16] Further, even though the application was not designed to read books, the Wall Street Journal journalist Ben Rooney managed to understand a page from Harry Potter y el Prisionero de Azkaban.[17]
Word Lens 1.0 was created in ~2.5 years by Otavio Good, a former video game developer and the founder of Quest Visual;[1][2][13][16] John DeWeese, who previously worked on the Electronic Arts game Spore,[2][13][16] and a programmer Maia Good.[16]
"Google Goggles application for Android and iPhone has the capability to translate text or identify objects in an image, but it requires users to take a picture with their phones, and an active internet connection. Word Lens does it on the fly, meaning it's interpreting frames in video, almost in real time. A similar app called LookTel, designed to help blind people, scans print on objects such as packages of food and reads them aloud."[13]
Articles in the Wall Street Journal and Tom's Guide cited Clarke's Law describing Word Lens: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".[6][17]
The New York Times journalist David Pogue included Word Lens in his list of "the best tech ideas of the year" 2010 (10 ideas total).[15] See 2010 Pogie Awards video.
In the Wall Street Journal article by Ben Rooney, Word Lens received a rating of 4/5 and was described as "a sort of magic".[17]
Word Lens was chosen as a finalist for the 2010 Crunchies Best Technology Achievement award.
Ellen of The Ellen DeGeneres Show demoed Word Lens and referred to it as 'amazing' in her segment Ellen Found the Best Apps!
Otavio Good won the 2011 World Technology Award in the category IT-Software (Individual) for creation of Word Lens.[22][23]
| Version | Release Date | Size | New Languages | New Devices | New Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Word Lens 1.0 | December 16, 2010 | 3.6 MB | English, Spanish | iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPod Touch (4th generation) | Snapshot or real-time video translation in color |
| Word Lens 1.0.1 | March 22, 2011 | 3.9 MB | None | iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G | Content localized for Spanish users |
| Word Lens 1.1 | December 14, 2011 | 13.8 MB | French | iPhone 4S | Improved OCR and accuracy of translation |
Table updated on December 15, 2011 based on ref.[19]