Much was made of Google Goggles when it launched in late-2009 with image recognition technology, followed by a translation tool about seven months ago.
But now a new mobile application called Word Lens has materialised, taking the idea of text recognition and translation to another stage by showing live results, rather than having to wait for results to be returned to the device in another form.
Created by QuestVisual, Word Lens currently only translates English to Spanish (and vice versa) and is available from the iTunes for a modest $4.99.
The technology to create Word Lens apparently took two and a half years to develop, which is no small undertaking, but probably explains why there are plans to include other languages soon.
Here's a clip:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2OfQdYrHRs