4 ms·

And I see the opposite. Anyone could have had this idea, but very few could execute on it. In fact all that will determine whether this is a big success or not

by staunch 16y ago

And I see the opposite. Anyone could have had this idea, but very few could execute on it. In fact all that will determine whether this is a big success or not is whether the thing really works or not (execution).

colanderman 16y ago
No kidding... I was just sitting down to research open-source Java OCR software to do this exact thing on Android. My dreams are dashed but I'm glad someone did it...
- Tichy 16y ago
  I was also thinking about this recently. Anyway, there doesn't seem to be an Android version yet... I admit I was just thinking about reading foreign language books and translating some parts, this app takes it much further.
revorad 16y ago
A lot of people must have thought of making OCR iPhone apps. But the idea of using OCR to do real-time language translation superposed on the original background image? That's genius. I hadn't thought of it. Did you? At least in my limited experience, deciding what to work on is really important. Acknowledging great ideas doesn't take away anything from their superb execution.
- jodrellblank 16y ago
  I hadn't thought of it. Did you? I did: "One that I've mentioned in almost every post here for ages, a service that I can take a photo, it does OCR and feeds the text into Google translate. Bonus points if it does source-language-detection. More bonus points if it is actually usable in a foreign country on real live things like signposts, menus, timetables, advertisements, book covers, leaflets, etc." - me, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=569838 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=569838 Nearly two years ago, travelling in a foreign country with an iPhone, knowing Google Translate existed, knowing OCR existed, and not being able to do anything with that knowledge. (It's so rare that I hit this kind of advance view on things I'm going to be shamelessly happy about it. NB, I'm not claiming anything here - I couldn't write it and didn't try).
- Alan01252 16y ago
  My work colleague also had this exact idea, and told me about it in the hopes I could code something to do the job. There was just no way I had the time/resources/skill to make something like this.

by staunch 16y ago

colanderman 16y ago

No kidding... I was just sitting down to research open-source Java OCR software to do this exact thing on Android. My dreams are dashed but I'm glad someone did it...

Tichy 16y ago
I was also thinking about this recently. Anyway, there doesn't seem to be an Android version yet... I admit I was just thinking about reading foreign language books and translating some parts, this app takes it much further.

revorad 16y ago

A lot of people must have thought of making OCR iPhone apps. But the idea of using OCR to do real-time language translation superposed on the original background image? That's genius. I hadn't thought of it. Did you? At least in my limited experience, deciding what to work on is really important. Acknowledging great ideas doesn't take away anything from their superb execution.

jodrellblank 16y ago
I hadn't thought of it. Did you? I did: "One that I've mentioned in almost every post here for ages, a service that I can take a photo, it does OCR and feeds the text into Google translate. Bonus points if it does source-language-detection. More bonus points if it is actually usable in a foreign country on real live things like signposts, menus, timetables, advertisements, book covers, leaflets, etc." - me, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=569838 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=569838 Nearly two years ago, travelling in a foreign country with an iPhone, knowing Google Translate existed, knowing OCR existed, and not being able to do anything with that knowledge. (It's so rare that I hit this kind of advance view on things I'm going to be shamelessly happy about it. NB, I'm not claiming anything here - I couldn't write it and didn't try).
Alan01252 16y ago
My work colleague also had this exact idea, and told me about it in the hopes I could code something to do the job. There was just no way I had the time/resources/skill to make something like this.