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PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

photomath.net

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Re: PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

#31

Post by deskpro »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #8
mkoryak wrote: post #6

Man, I wish I had this (and cellphones) in high school. Would have made cheating so much easier!

When I was at school I had one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3 And got in trouble for writing programs in OPL to solve math problems. I reckon I deserved extra credit for initiative. The experience of learning to program has certainly turned out to be ultimately more useful than learning to do math without a calculator. (Not that I think that learning to do math without a calculator is useless,…

Haha, I had the exact same experience. Although I'm not sure the dice cricket game I also wrote in maths class counted :)

Re: PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

#35

Post by Steuard »

AndrewOMartin wrote: post #34

I'd be more interested if it could provide the LaTeX code for the scanned equation. Then you could write equations by hand and simply scan them in. I'm halfway through a thesis, so it's too late for me, but others could have a notorious learning curve eased somewhat.

I'm betting that interpreting your math handwriting would be quite a bit harder than interpreting printed text. That said, I'd love to have that feature, too.

Re: PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

#36

Post by Steuard »

What is the use case for this? It's hard for me to see anything other than K-12 math homework (or early college, in some cases). Even graphing calculators have broader applicability than that, and that's saying something.

I'm tempted to go one step further and say that it's hard to see it as much more than a "do my homework for me" app, but I know that's too harsh. Some wise users might turn to it only to check their answers, or to get a hint about the next step if they're stuck. But as a professor, I've seen just how easy it can be for even strong students to come to over-rely on "Help, I'm stuck!" opportunities if they're available, and that doesn't assist with learning. (In one memorable case, that opportunity was me in my office, and I eventually had to limit my supply of helpful hints.)

Re: PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

#37

Post by chrisBob »

Seeing this reminds me how frustrating searching in the app store is. I saw this story on my computer, and picked up my iPad and went to the app store to download it. Searching for "photo math" yields a few hundred goofy photo editing apps [1]. Searching by the correct name "photomath" yields 0 results. I ended up going to their website to get the link before figuring out that my default search is for iPad compatible apps only, and that this won't show up unless I search with iPhone Only selected.

[1] fat face and look like a zombie are the most popular, but I was most impressed with Abs Booth

edit: the developer should also note that searching by name does not work unless you add the app name as a keyword. I have submitted bug reports for both issues (18735078 and 18735109)

Re: PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

#38

Post by tomswartz07 »

washedup wrote: post #21

Doesn't this defeat the purpose of the exercises?

I think it fundamentally changes how the lessons are being taught.

Sure, you'll need to spend some time to understand the fundamentals of solving the problem, but afterwards (and just like in real life) you'd punch the problems into the computer and solve them.

This leaves the field open to expand the lesson into more in-depth topics, rather than getting bogged down on the simple math.

Re: PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

#39

Post by pocketheyman »

Steuard wrote: post #36

What is the use case for this? It's hard for me to see anything other than K-12 math homework (or early college, in some cases). Even graphing calculators have broader applicability than that, and that's saying something. I'm tempted to go one step further and say that it's hard to see it as much more than a "do my homework for me" app, but I know that's too harsh. Some wise users might turn to it only to check their…

I will admit, as a once ardent anti-math student, I appreciate how frustrating it is to sit down, stare at a problem for 10 minutes and advance no where through feeble attempts.

When I began taking Calc 2 (as an adult who's worked and gone back to school), I found wolfram alpha's integral solver to be INCREDIBLY helpful for working through practice problems (to your point, I was using it as a check/next step assistance). I ended up with an A in that class because of Wolfram's ability to help me work through a problem regardless of the hour, or day.

I think if this (or a similar app) helps students work through problems and recognize errors they're making, it can absolutely be beneficial. I would concede with respect to the homework solver aspect, but hope that teachers could some how incorporate this into their classes, something along the lines of an account management system that shows the teachers which students are requesting which equation.

Re: PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

#40

Post by tomswartz07 »

AndrewOMartin wrote: post #34

I'd be more interested if it could provide the LaTeX code for the scanned equation. Then you could write equations by hand and simply scan them in. I'm halfway through a thesis, so it's too late for me, but others could have a notorious learning curve eased somewhat.

While it's not as full as OCR, there's an app called DeTeXify that will do almost exactly what you describe.

Android app link here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=coolcherrytree...

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