# iPhone translation app on TV advert - genuine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 9, 2011, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-translation-app-on-tv-advert-genuine/595708 "2011-09-09T09:44:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-translation-app-on-tv-advert-genuine/595708/1 "2011-09-09T09:44:20Z")
There’s an advert for the iPhone on British TV at the moment. One of the apps it shows is a text translator. The user takes a photo of a menu (in French, IIRC), and then the app magically replaces the foreign words with the English translations. Not especially complex stuff, but the way it shows the words being seamless replaced with exactly the same font and colour, and even spaced out to fit perfectly in the menu makes me go :dubious: So what’s this app, and does it really work like that or has it been “prettified” for the TV? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-translation-app-on-tv-advert-genuine/595708/2 "2011-09-09T10:07:53Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > There’s an advert for the iPhone on British TV at the moment. One of the apps it shows is a text translator. The user takes a photo of a menu (in French, IIRC), and then the app magically replaces the foreign words with the English translations. Not especially complex stuff, but the way it shows the words being seamless replaced with exactly the same font and colour, and even spaced out to fit perfectly in the menu makes me go :dubious: > > So what’s this app, and does it really work like that or has it been “prettified” for the TV? I have the app, for Spanish. It absolutely works the way the commercial claims, though, like all the commercials, not always as quickly or as smoothly. You point the camera at the text and you get an image of the item on your screen. The English or Spanish (in my case) words morph into the translated words in the same font, color etc etc. That is the idea of the app- that you see the original document, in real time, but with the translation in place. It’s unbelievably cool, expensive and touchy. If you don’t hold the phone always just right it doesn’t work so well. Sometimes it lags. But when it works perfectly (large clear font, perfect orientation) it’s like magic. Expensive too. You have to buy the translation libraries as an in app purchase, and each direction (Span- Eng and Eng-Span) is a separate purchase. 10.00 US I believe for each. I couldn’t resist though. It was too cool. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-translation-app-on-tv-advert-genuine/595708/3 "2011-09-09T10:46:31Z")
It’s called WordLens - and it does sort of work like that. It’s a bit more wobbly than you’ll see in demos promoting it, but still quite impressive. It works best in contexts where there’s hardly any grammar - signs, menus, lists, etc. If you try to translate sentences with it, it goes a bit engrish. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-translation-app-on-tv-advert-genuine/595708/4 "2011-09-09T11:22:36Z")
Thanks. It looks like it is only available for Spanish at the moment, so I must have remembered wrong. I ask because I managed to break my old phone a couple of days ago and have taken the plunge and upgraded to an iPhone 4, so looking for new toys to play on it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![iantendo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@iantendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iantendo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2011, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-translation-app-on-tv-advert-genuine/595708/5 "2011-09-09T21:45:07Z")
in the UK we get a little disclaimer at the bottom of the iPhone/pad commercials that says “sequence shortened for commercial purposes” or something similar ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-translation-app-on-tv-advert-genuine/595708/6 "2011-09-10T00:54:54Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Expensive too. You have to buy the translation libraries as an in app purchase, and each direction (Span- Eng and Eng-Span) is a separate purchase. 10.00 US I believe for each. I couldn’t resist though. It was too cool. It seems to me that that’s unbelievably cheap for technology that appears to come right out of science fiction. I’ve played with Wordlens, and it’s awesome. You need fairly bright light and high contrast, so it works well outside and on street signs, but not so well in normally-lit rooms. Also, it has more trouble with some fonts than others. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-translation-app-on-tv-advert-genuine/595708/7 "2011-09-10T01:02:24Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > It seems to me that that’s unbelievably cheap for technology that appears to come right out of science fiction. I agree- but for an app, I was suprised to have to pay 20.00 dollars to get both libraries. Before then all the apps I had bought were all free or $0.99. But that’s why I did buy it- how cool it that! ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-translation-app-on-tv-advert-genuine/595708/8 "2011-09-10T04:43:12Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > I agree- but for an app, I was suprised to have to pay 20.00 dollars to get both libraries. Before then all the apps I had bought were all free or $0.99. But that’s why I did buy it- how cool it that! Why on earth would you need both dictionaries?! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iphone-translation-app-on-tv-advert-genuine/595708/9 "2011-09-10T11:51:06Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Why on earth would you need both dictionaries?! 😃 Because I like buying stuff. 🙂