Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

photomath.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 63 posts

Re: PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

#41

Post by m1h4 »

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.

The stuff we do under-the-hood would make this relatively simple to implement. We already have a custom, intermediate, math expression language which we use to hold scanned data. One would only need to write a converter from this language to latex instead of the visual typesetting that we display on-screen

Re: PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

#42

Post by Ntrails »

pocketheyman wrote: post #39
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 assistan…

It seems like a failure of the course/teacher if you are asked to solve a problem in which you can't identify the requisite steps and make progress?

In my mind the reason for problems is to practice the techniques taught until you can: a) avoid common pitfalls b) recognise common patterns c) minimise calculation errors with sense checks

However, when this problem set is marked and impacts your results obviously the incentives change from learning by doing to getting 100%. Once you have an app like this for "checking", it takes decent appreciation of the long term outcomes to avoid using it for "solving" and then going off to play some Frog Fractions.

Re: PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

#43

Post by wilhow »

I think this will produce lazier students. This will encourage student to expect instant answers to math problems rather than encourage them to learn to seek answers by understanding the questions, equations and formula.

Re: PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

#45

Post by netcan »

wilhow wrote: post #43

I think this will produce lazier students. This will encourage student to expect instant answers to math problems rather than encourage them to learn to seek answers by understanding the questions, equations and formula.

This is true of all inventions.

When I was learning math we had to draw out equations in sand, with roman numerals. Digits make students lazy. Instead of actually visualizing the numbers geometrically, all they need to do is play around with numbers.

Re: PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

#46

Post by sp332 »

Ntrails wrote: post #42
pocketheyman wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 assistan…

It seems like a failure of the course/teacher if you are asked to solve a problem in which you can't identify the requisite steps and make progress? In my mind the reason for problems is to practice the techniques taught until you can: a) avoid common pitfalls b) recognise common patterns c) minimise calculation errors with sense checks However, when this problem set is marked and impacts your results obviously the i…

Some problems have several steps or techniques that need to be applied. It's not always obvious which way to go at first. Near the end of a course, or in higher-level courses, there could be hundreds of possible "next steps" that you've learned. Recognizing common patterns doesn't help in uncommon cases.

Re: PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

#49

Post by mathteacher1729 »

A colleague at my office gave it a test drive.

* http://youtu.be/jDbTKgWoufw

Results: As of now, it can only solve some linear equations. It did successfully solve one quadratic but it couldn't decide if the variable was r or e (the variable was x). It was largely unable to solve handwritten problems, even simple arithmetic.

note: This is a copy/paste of a comment I left on reddit /r/math and /r/windowsphone.

Re: PhotoMath – Smart camera calculator

#50

Post by delluminatus »

devinmontgomery wrote: post #48

I am at once both amazed and saddened. Mastering fraction reduction and later simple algebra when I was a kid was one of the most empowering experiences of my life. This is like having an app run a marathon for me - it's easier, but I'm not changed through the work.

I mean, isn't it basically a homework aid? While it's definitely cheaty, I can understand why it would appeal to kids who just want to get their homework done fast, or people who are stuck on exercises and want a hint.
Post reply on HN