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Linguafoculs

Glasses that translate text
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Ever seen text in a foreign language and wished you knew what it said? Sure there are translation websites, but that involves typing the foreign text by hand, not to mention the difficulty factor of those anoying little characters that are part of foreign words and don't show up on keyboards. Oh, and this is all assuming the text is on the internet and not on paper.

For a solution, I introduce to you Linguafoculs™. Linguafoculs™ appear from the outside to be slightly oversized and overtinted reading glasses. But on the inside, much more is going on. Two very small camcorders (one for each eye) submit a mixed view to a PDA (that can easily be storred in ones pocket inconspicuously, with a small head-phone like cord running back up to the glasses). The PDA scans the view only for text, and trashes everything else (keep in mind, these are not seeing glasses, only reading glasses). Once the languages (input and output) are specified, the computer will send the translated text through the two small LCD screens within each eye piece. Of course, it would be set so that as you tilt your head, the text stays in direct line with the text being translated (to give at least a partial sense of where the text is). As an added bonus, the PDA has a USB port and small memory chip to store a few pages worth of translation in .txt format that can easily be hooked up to a computer and printed.

acurafan07, Apr 13 2007

Sort of... http://www.freepate...om/20010056342.html
This one's a camera not glasses [neutrinos_shadow, Apr 13 2007]

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       Other than what I found after a quick Google (linky), I saw a documentary on Discovery (I think) about a PPC (with camera) that could translate speech-to-speech, text-speech, speech-text, and text-text; mostly designed for travellers in foreign countries. I can't remember who (or where) was working on it, or find a link - some university or research lab somewhere or other.
neutrinos_shadow, Apr 13 2007
  

       Using a holographic technology, yet to be invented, a HUD could be used, where a laser writes holographic images on the surface of the cornea, that after transmission through the lens becomes a perfectly focused image on the retina.   

       Of course, the spectacles would not be required, but would be replaced by some other bulkier item. That's progress for you.
Ling, Apr 13 2007
  

       Surely the PDA can identify the language of the text it's reading? You may not know what language it is yourself, so you might not be able to make the setting.   

       (Identifying a language from a short sample of text is actually quite an easy programming problem - whereas translating it isn't easy (to do well) at all.)
Cosh i Pi, Apr 13 2007
  

       Will it translate my dog's bark?
daseva, Apr 13 2007
  

       Maybe if your dog texts the bark to you.
DrCurry, Apr 13 2007
  

       OK, who told Google about the Halfbakery? This is pretty much exactly what Google Translate (on a tablet or smartphone) does, just not the glasses bit.
neutrinos_shadow, Oct 13 2015
  
      
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