Innovative mobile tool translates words inside of images in real-time without the need for an internet connection

If you’re a frequent international traveler you may find this interesting and useful. Let’s say you’re at a restaurant in a foreign country and you’re having trouble with the menu. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just whip out your iPhone or iPad and scan the menu for an instant translation – even if the restaurant had no Wi-Fi?

Well now, thanks to Quest Visual’s Word Lens app you can do just that.

First released in 2010, Word Lens is hardly new. But the nifty little app nevertheless caught my interest.

Here’s how it works. Using your mobile device’s built-in camera to identify text in one language, such as a sign or a menu, the app instantly translates the words shown 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. Pretty cool, don’t you think? Here’s the app in action.

Word Lens was created by Otavio Good, a former video game developer and the founder of Quest Visual, and John DeWeese, who previously worked on the Electronic Arts game Spore.

Founder Good explains the app’s process simply, “It tries to find out what the letters are and then looks in the dictionary. Then it draws the words back on the screen in translation.”

Much like Google Translate or Babel Fish, Good admits the translations aren't always perfect with Word Lens. But the app may certainly be enough to get you by in a pinch.

Not bad for a mobile app that requires no Wi-Fi nor data connection.

Alex Dupont

See Also

• More about machine translation
  Raw machine translation may be sufficient for communicating via social networks. However, you may have to consider human translation if you require high quality.
• Essential iPad, iPhone apps for business travel by Charlie Osborne (ZD Net)
  A mobile translation tool, the application uses 'augmented reality' technology to translate text-based images in real-time.
• Video of how Word Lens works
  Very intriguing video of the ap in action.