How One Impressive Mobile App Plans to Overcome Language Barriers - 1 June 2011

The Global Innovation Series is supported by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose built electric vehicles it delivers smart mobility services.

The iOS application World Lens, as its creator Otavio Good describes it, is just a dictionary with a good interface. “What’s new is the good interface,” he says the interface being your mobile device.

But when the “interface” in question includes sophisticated vector and graphics processing (as on newer versions of the iPhone), Word Lens is more like a personal translator than a dictionary.

Simply point your camera at text to see the translated words appear on your device’s screen in real time, no Internet connection required.

This magic like text translation effect could change the way the world travels. It can help tourists decipher signs, menus and brochures, avoid uncomfortable situations, better understand their surroundings and ultimately get them to feel more at home in a far away place.

Good says he hopes “it will help you learn a language a lot more naturally … in that environment.” It’s more natural, he says, because the user can see word for word meanings and get a better grasp on sentence structure.

For now, World Lens (iTunes) sells just two language packs: Spanish to English translation and English to Spanish translation, each pack costing $9.99.

Mashable spoke with Good to better understand how Word Lens goes about translating text in video.

“My mom taught me to program computer graphics when I was about seven years old,” Good recalls. “I’ve been programming ever since then.”

In 2000, Good was one of three guys to found Secret Level, a video game startup that grew to more than 50 employees before it was acquired by SEGA for $15 million in 2006. Good stayed with SEGA for the next two and a half years, a condition of the deal.

During his time at SEGA, Good traveled to Germany, where he came up with the idea for the Word Lens. “I didn’t take it very seriously at first,” he says.

His coworkers encouraged him to follow through with the idea, and Good had a working prototype running in three weeks time. “I didn’t know for another two years that I could pull it off,” he says.

In the interim, the prototype and the potential opportunity to create an instant translator for the lucrative tourism market was enough to convince him to see the idea come to fruition.

In December 2010, roughly two and a half years after the first prototype was built, Word Lens launched for iPhone.

Quest Visual, the startup behind Word Lens, is now three employees: Good, John DeWeese and Good’s mom, Maia Good. It’s entirely bootstrapped and has enough funds flowing in through in-app purchases to fund development.

By Jennifer Van Grove (Mashable)