There are a lot of translation applications available via the iTunes App Store. Some are excellent and some are pretty terrible. Many can help you find your way around town, but none of them to date, however, are as cool as Word Lens. In blending the essentials feature set seen in many iOS translation applications with some basic augmented reality features, Word Lens has changed raised the bar for what both translation and augmented reality applications should be.
That's not to say Word Lens is perfect--far from it, actually. During our testing of the application, we found that the program often had difficulties locking on to the text we wanted it to translate, or worse still, couldn't decide on a single option for what a word should translate to. Looking past the program's short comings, however, we can't help but see a little glimpse of the future here. It has more than a few of us at Mac|Life excited at the prospect of being able to rely on Word Lens during our next trips abroad, or at the very least, into the international food aisle of our local supermarket. If you haven't taken the time to download the application and check it out, we've put together this how-to guide to get you started.
Step one: Download the app
There's no getting around it. If you want to try out Word Lens, you're going to have to download it first. You can find it here [iTunes link]. Once you've installed the app to your iOS device, start it up.
While the Word Lens is free to download, it's basic functionality is limited to a pair of parlor tricks. The application will only allow you to reverse words that you place in front of your iPhone or iPod touch's camera. It will also let you erase words picked up by Word Lens.
In order to do anything meaningful with the application, like say, translate something, you'll have to make an in-app purchase of one of the language databases offered by the software's developers. The ability to translate English to Spanish, for example, will set you back $4.99. The same can be said for translating Spanish to English. Pick a database to start off with and download it. For the sake of this exercise, we choose English to Spanish.
Step two: Get to know the interface
Now that you've got a database to work with, it's time to put Word Lens to work. To do so, you're going to need some words to translate. Find a sign, open up a book, or dare we suggest a recent copy of Mac|Life Magazine, and choose a bit of copy that you'd love to see translated into Spanish. Now, point your iOS device's camera at it. Boom: Word Lens translates the words in your selection in real-time to the language of your choice. Not too shabby, huh?
It gets better.
Thanks to a few tools baked into Word Lens' interface, not only does the application take the drudgery out of translating the world around us through the use of some clever augmented reality technology, it also makes it easy to come to terms with what some of those freshly translated words mean. Point your iOS device at some text and wait for it to translate what's in front of the camera. Once those English words you were staring at only moments ago have magically changed into Spanish, click the pause icon in the bottom middle of the application's user interface.
You'll note that all of the translated words have now become hyperlinks. Tap on any of those hyperlinked words and Word Lens will spawn a dictionary entry for that word. We can see this as being a great tool for those who are trying to learn a second language, or travelers who are totally perplexed by the street signs.
Step Three: Peel Off a Layer
To the left of the pause icon, you'll see another icon that resembles a human eye. By tapping an holding this icon, you can instantly remove the translated words that Word Lens has superimposed over the image captured by your iOS device's camera. Doing so makes it easy to review the original source material you'd set out to translate.
Step Four: Give it a Spin
By default, Word Lens is set up to leverage the accelerometer built into your iOS device. In other words, if you move your handset from a portrait to a landscape orientation, Word lens will compensate by shifting the placement of the words it translates on your device's screen in such a way that they still sync up with the image in your camera's field of vision, despite the change of orientation. While this may be intuitive, it may not always be the best option for every situation you use the app under. To lock Word Lens' translation orientation (say that five times fast), simply tap the orientation button in the top left corner of the user interface.
Step Five: Change it Up
Once you've had your fill of translating English to Spanish, you can refresh the Word Lens experience by opting to download a new language pack, Spanish to English, for example. There's little doubt that given the buzz already surrounding the application, new tranlation options will soon be available as an in app download as well.
Follow this article's author, Seamus Bellamy on Twitter
Image GallerySent from my iPad
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