Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Planing for a trip to any foreign country??? Here is your translator!!!

If you've ever wandered around a foreign country completely confused by what all of the signs are actually saying, Quest Visual has the answer with its augmented reality Word Lens App for iPhone. Simply point the camera at the text you want translated and the foreign language is replaced instantly on-screen with something you can read.

While translation software has been available before, seeing the converted text in-situ without any pop-ups is both neater and quicker. The speed of translation requires a small amount of text and Word Lens was not designed to read books. Decent light and clear text are also required for the best results, with Quest Visual telling people to "brighten the text with your phone light".

Currently the app is only available for the iPhone on the App Store for free, but you have to pay $4.99 in-app for translation packs. Currently there are only two packs available, Spanish to English and English to Spanish; however Quest Visual has big plans for the software.

"We're starting out with European languages and will expand from there. We won't stop until we get all the way across the globe!" said the official website.

More European languages should be added soon and all will be available to buy in-app, with the rest of the world following after that.

What of other handset users? Quest Visual has big plans on this front too, hinting that apps are on the way for Android, Windows Phone 7, Palm and Blackberry.

"Our goal was to get a great first release on one platform. Keep in touch!" said the website.