Google Acquires Company Behind 'Word Lens' App for iOS

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Posted May 16, 2014 at 6:31pm by iClarified

Google has acquired Quest Visual, the company behind the 'Word Lens' app for iOS.

World Lens lets you instantly translate printed words using your device's built-in video camera, in real time.

Here's the official announcement:

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With Word Lens, we've seen the beginnings of what's possible when we harness the power of mobile devices to "see the world in your language."

By joining Google, we can incorporate Quest Visual's technology into Google Translate's broad language coverage and translation capabilities in the future.

As a thank you to everybody who supported us on our journey, we've made both the app and the language packs free to download for a limited time while we transition to Google.

We're looking forward to continuing our work at Google - stay tuned!
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Word Lens was also featured in Apple's recent 'Powerful' ad.

You can download Word Lens from the App Store for free.

Read More [via TechCrunch]

Google Acquires Company Behind 'Word Lens' App for iOS

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Legba - May 18, 2014 at 7:46am

I agree with Ismael Santos! Google has a horrible record when it comes to acquisitions. They buy the startup promising to boost up the idea into their mega servers/services and then instead nothing is done like the AMAZING app called Aardvark (www.vark.com): google about it! (Ah! The irony...) Or when they simply get you hooked up and then with a non-explanation worth it of a Chicago politician they kill the service like they did with Google Reader, Google Goggles (search by taking a pic with your camera), ... And the last one worries me, again zero explanation for a service many people liked and was simply inside the Google app, why kill it? Again no explanation, nothing. I call this arrogant ..... (You put the word in the dots)

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gamerscul9870 - May 17, 2014 at 6:50pm

As long as they can improve I am happy.

ISMAEL SANTOS - May 17, 2014 at 6:23pm

and one month from now, the app will be removed from appstore and it will stop working. just like "bump" when google bought it

gamerscul9870 - May 17, 2014 at 2:39am

That solves my world travel concern. Whenever I need to talk to someone, I just use the iTranslator app, but for reading, I have this. Downside is paying but I'm still satisfied.