Google has acquired Quest Visual, the company behind the app Word Lens, which lets you point your smartphone at words in the real world and have them translated via augmented reality.
I doubt I’m the first to make the connection, but this reminds me of They Live a bit. Especially when you combine it with something like Google Glass.
Quest Visual had this to say on the Word Lens site:
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.
As 9to5Mac notes, the app was recently featured prominently in an iPhone ad.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Image via YouTube