Google has acquired Quest Visual for an undisclosed amount. In doing so, the company has picked up a means for augmenting its translation capabilities in Android and Google Glass, in addition to bolstering its own Google Translate service with Quest Visual's eye-catching technology.
Quest Visual's primary app, Word Lens, allows a person to flip on the camera of their Android or iOS device and use it to frame a series of words they don't otherwise understand — like a road sign printed in a foreign language, for example. In a perfect world, Word Lens recognizes the text and automatically replaces it with whatever you've elected to translate it to: French to English, English to Spanish, et cetera.
The app is primary for going between English and a second language, and vice versa, as language packs that one could previously purchase (and are now free, thanks to the acquisition) are all combinations of English and another language: Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, German, or Portuguese. The app works without any kind of network signal, which is a boon for those travelling. It also works with Google Glass, for those of you who have become recent explorers for the $1,500 device.
"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,' reads a post on Word Lens' website.
"By joining Google, we can incorporate Quest Visual's technology into Google Translate's broad language coverage and translation capabilities in the future."
The rest of the language on Word Lens' website — detailing out the fact that the app and its language packs are now free for the taking — does seem to suggest that it will be going away at some point. Quest Visual isn't commenting any more on that or the acquisition, nor is Google.
Quest Visual was founded in 2009, and the four-person team currently operates out of San Francisco. They've previously worked closely with Google around Word Lens, as the latter was one of the five featured Glassware apps Google showed off as part of a November 2013 hackathon for Google Glass. It's safe to say that Glass and Word Lens are ideally matched, so it'll be curious to see just how Word Lens bolsters Google's other translation-themed apps and services going forward.