Translate foreign text with the new word lens app!

If you’ve ever set foot abroad and become confused by what all of the signs are saying then the new app Word Lens can help.

Word Lens is the result of 2 and a half years development by founders Otavio Good and John De Weese and is a revelation in translation software.

Word Lens uses Optical Character Recognition technology to create an effect that is really quite remarkable. One of the founders Otavio Good tries to explain the app’s process simply by saying “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”.

Even though the app is ready to buy from the Apple store it is still in its early days and will only translate small snippets of text. Word lens just isn’t sophisticated enough to translate books or even strings of sentences… yet.

Even so Word Lens is by far and away the best instant translation service out there and is perfect when wanting to quickly read a foreign sign or even skim read a menu. However as they say, seeing is believing, so check out the video below to see Word Lens in action.