Word Lens Pushes Augmented Reality to the Masses

Augmented Reality has been touted as the next "killer" genre of mobile-software for some time now. Granted, it's an exciting prospect. I've seen some incredible demonstrations from Blair McIntyre's Augmented Environments Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology for the past couple of years, and while the possibilites are pretty exciting, the sad truth is that the technology just hasn't been available (at least on a hand-held device). While many newer mobile devices have enough horsepower to take on AR, the software executions have thus-far been lacking.

But today, one application has captured my attention - and while there is plenty of room for improvement, the initial concept is intriguing.

QuestVisual has released an eye-catching iOS app called WordLens. Word Lens is an augmented reality app for the iPhone and iPod Touch (with video camera) which offers real time translation of text. You simply point your device's video camera at a sign and the program translates and superimposes the translated text onto the video - in real time. The demo video shows it in action:

Word Lens is available as a free download. In the free version, users can reverse or blank-out text in real time. Language packs for Spanish to English and English to Spanish are available for $4.99 each. More language packs are in the works.

The downside is that translations are done on a word-by-word basis, which is quite inaccurate - especially when translating entire phrases.  Further, if you've had a bit too much caffeine and don't have the steadiest of hands, you'll be frustrated with keeping your device fixed on the image long enough to allow the app to work its magic.

We're hoping that QuestVisual will be able to partner with other translation partners to provide more accurate translations and work out the usability issues.

Will a Verizon iPhone be a Droid-Killer?

It seems that every week or so someone comments about an up-and-coming "iDevice Killer". First it was the Palm-Pre. In June of 2009, CBS questioned "Is Palm's 'Pre' an iPhone Killer"? (Seems funny now, doesn't it?) Countless sites have declared every new Android device as the heir apparent to the iPhone. Just a few days ago Business Insider proclaimed "Android 3.0 To Debut with Motorola's iPad-Killer".

I suppose that not only is it lonely at the top, but you somehow become the target of assassins, too. And lots of patent lawsuits, but that's another story.

As a matter of opinion, the iPhone is arguably the best device out there. (Let the flaming begin.) Unfortunately, it's somewhat crippled in the U.S. as a consequence of being available solely on the nation's worst carrier. These opinions aren't just mine, of course. According to ChangeWave Research, 99% of iPhone owners say they're happy with their device (saying they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied"). Interestingly, though, Consumer Reports recently rated AT&T the lowest in customer satisfaction. Perhaps the most interesting tid-bit in the Consumer Reports survey, though, was that over half of the survey's 58,000 respondents owned some version of the iPhone.

Summary: 99% of iPhone owners love their phone, but over half of those same consumers are dissatisfied with their carrier. That's not good news for AT&T. I don't think it's good news for Droid, either.

It certainly doesn't take a genius (not to be confused with Genius) to see that a VZW iPhone could result in AT&T losing a significant percentage of their subscribers to Verizon. But what could it mean for Verizon's "Droid" branded Android-based handsets?

We won't know for sure until (and if) the iPhone lands on Verizon's network - but based on an informal survey (and by "informal" I mean discussing this topic with several Verizon Droid owners over a couple of beers) it seems that many of them opted for an Android-based device because it was the next-best thing to an iPhone on their network. With an iPhone as an option, will Droid owners abandon the runner-up device?

It depends. Droid has a lot of good things going for it. If you're a particularly tech-savvy user, then you're aware that the Droid offers you a tremendous amount of freedom in fine-tuning the OS to work exactly to your specifications. The downside is that those not as skilled can easily make changes to the device that result in some nasty consequences - not the least of which are poor battery life and instability. It's less likely that the power-user will opt to make the switch - and those that do will probably be itching for the next jailbreak release that will give them the control to which they've become accustomed on the Droid.

Droid's worst enemy right now seems to be Android itself. While developers sing the praises of "open", the sad truth is that carriers and manufacturers have taken "open" to mean "we can change it and make it into what we want" including customized UIs, disabled functionality, and pre-installed bloat-ware that often can't be removed. Couple that with fragmented hardware options and you have... well, you have Windows Mobile*.

For now, I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude when it comes to the long-term success of Android-based devices, including the Droid-branded Verizon handsets. I'm hoping for the best because I think the OS has great potential. But when (and if) the iPhone lands on Verizon, my prediction is that those huge gains in market share that Google loves to quote will start to level off.

* Prior to Windows Phone 7, which is an entirely different ballgame.