Awesome.
One note, it'll be hard to get really good translation quality without a network connection, because good models require tons of CPU and memory -- Google Translate is far better than word-for-word because it uses such things.
Introducing Word Lens
161–170 of 298 posts
Re: Introducing Word Lens
#162(hola, i'm john deweese, one of the creators) good to hear the early positive response, and we look forward to your insightful feedback (support@questvisual.com) -- mention this site so we pay some extra attention. i hope this app will be nice and disruptive, and we'll be looking carefully at what people expect and how they actually use it. it's a platform, and we're really excited about the directions it opens up. t…
Do you plan on creating an Android version anytime soon?
For the love of FSM, do it! I speak for a vast majority of Android users here on HN when I say I'd buy this even if it cost five times what it does now.
Re: Introducing Word Lens
#163This is the first time I regret not having an iphone (I have an ipod touch without camera). Good job guys!
Re: Introducing Word Lens
#164are there any plans for a teenage txt speak to english dictionary so I can finally understand my niece?
Re: Introducing Word Lens
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt they will be bought by Google, Apple is probably already writing cheques. Apple has been getting the pants beat off them by Google in mobile translation for awhile now. If there is a patent behind this then Apple will grab this for their stable just to keep it off the Android platform. It would be a huge 'one-up' for them. (which makes me sad as I strongly prefer Android devices) In time you'll see it license…
I don’t think the translation is the amazing part – as one of the creators said here, at the moment it mostly does word-for-word translation. Google’s statistical machine translation is mightily impressive technology, I’m not sure whether you could even theoretically put it on a phone at the moment. You would ideally want the OCR and text replacement together with Google’s translation algorithms, which, besides requi…
Requiring a network connection would also make it useless while travelling abroad, which would probably make up about 90% of the times when you'd actually need this app. Not using a network connection is vital for this app to be of any real use.
Re: Introducing Word Lens
#166Looks extraordinary by the HN comments; unfortunately the site is down right now... ;-(
La rançon du succès, I guess.
Re: Introducing Word Lens
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because "dead end" means "callejon sin salida". That's the correct translation (callejon = road, sin salida = w/out exit). On the other hand, "muerto fin" has NO meaning in spanish, (and that's what you get when you translate word for word without context).
Thank you. I think context is extremely important and very difficult to get right. I remember reading one article by Google engineer where they discuss how they keep improving their analysis of search queries. E.g. [Search Term] -> [Interpretation] New York -> New York city New York Times -> The news paper New York Times Square -> Famous tourist spot in NYC. There were other examples in the article. I will try to fin…
Was it this one? http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/02/ff_google_algorithm/al...
Re: Introducing Word Lens
#168The product seems amazing, but they are somehow cheating in the video. The signs (in Spanish) have grammar mistakes, but they are automatically translated to correct English sentences. I have a few examples: - The third sign says "Lo traduce el texto", but that sentence doesn't make sense. It should be "Traduce el texto" or even "Se traduce el texto". - 'Ropas opcional' sounds strange to me, although it may be accept…
It's called marketing and frankly I don't think it takes anything away from the app.
Re: Introducing Word Lens
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
(Native Spanish speaker here.) First: This app is amazing! But I think that this app is doing almost a word by word translations, without a list of usual expressions or grammatical analysis. For example, the correct translation of 'Dead End' is 'callejón sin salida' , that means literally something like 'street without exit' . Translating word by word 'Dead End' you obtain 'Muerto Fin' that is unintelligible. Another…
yep, this is a word-for-word translation, because it's fast and it gets the point across. we're working to improve translation quality and finesse, but it's a much harder problem to understand grammar. so, we hope it gives the general meaning, and you can learn to piece it apart.
"dead end" isn't grammar thought, it's a metaphor / idiom, and the only way to handle cases like that is a database of special cases.
Frickin awesome app tho'
Re: Introducing Word Lens
#170I'd pay at least $50 for a Chinese-English language pack. And even just 50% accuracy would be ok.