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.