The developer of Word Lens, an application that instantly translates printed words through the camera of an Apple mobile device without needing an Internet connection, was presented a World Technology Award last week.
Otavio Good, whose mobile app has been called “magical” by PCWorld, joined the likes of Apple, Amazon, and SpaceX — the private space travel company started by PayPal and Tesla Motors co-founder Elon Musk.
Good says he got the idea for the app while touring Germany. “[I] was in a bookstore surrounded by things I couldn’t read. Since I have a background in computer graphics from programming video games, I thought about getting my camera-phone to read the German text,” he says.
World Technology Network Founder and Chairman James Clark says already others are imitating the year-old app, which he describes as a “breakthrough for international travel and another big step toward the fabled universal translator.”
Word Lens, which currently only translates Spanish to English and English to Spanish, costs $9.99 for each language pair and works on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch (4th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, and iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G. It requires iOS 4.0 or later.
Good says his company, San Francisco-based Quest Visual, is working to add other language translation capability to the app.
The World Technology Summit convened last week in New York and culminated in a ceremony in which 20 awards were presented to institutions, companies and individuals for their contributions to long-term technology innovation.
The WTN’s stated purpose is to “encourage serendipity — the happy accidents of colliding ideas and new relationships that cause the biggest breakthroughs for individuals and institutions.” The WTN is a curated membership community comprised of the world’s most innovative individuals and organizations in science, technology, and related fields.