Word Lens

[htmb]

My daughter recently sent me a link to a mobile app that translates languages by using a cell phone or tablet camera lens. At the moment, in the USA anyway, it's a free download for iPhone and Android. It's just been purchased by Google, so I imagine it will not remain free for long. Using the app, languages may be translated from English to Russian, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish or German, and the reverse. I downloaded and installed the French version on my iPhone and it seems to work fairly well for reading short passages or random words. I doubt I would have downloaded it if it hadn't been free, but I could see using it occasionally on my next trip. It definitely would be a bonus when traveling to a country where I had absolutely no working knowledge of the language. Here's a link to an article about the app: www.techrepublic.com/article/google-picks-up-incredible-visual-translation-app-word-lens-and-makes-it-free/

[questa]

I stayed at a small, cheap hotel in Chengdu, China recently. No-one there understood English but a teenage boy had a small laptop with this ability. I would type my question in English and it would appear on his screen in Chinese, and vice versa. It helped a lot.

[Deleted]

I have fond memories of haggling in markets in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. That consists of passing a pocket calculator back and forth after entering a new amount.

[questa]

Ah...yes! first experienced in Thailand...I carry my own calculator to do battle.