For ADC2 I created BabelSnap! for the Travel category. You use the device's camera to snap a bit of text, whether from a public sign, a menu, or newspaper, etc. The image is fed through an OCR, and the resulting plain text can be translated to any language.
http://babelsnap.com/ (Yes, the demo video has the world's cheesiest and generic music. :-) Maybe I should have left it with no audio! ) I attended GoogleIO at the end of May where I first learned about ADC2, and received one of the Google Ion devices. Substantial prize money plus free device -- I could not ignore the opportunity to participate. That prize money could afford me some more help, and maybe some better OCR that recognizes non-latin characters, and maybe help pay some bills too! :-) I built BabelSnap in about 5 weeks. I had all the basic stuff functioning in about half that time. The other half I spent learning the idiosyncrasies of an android app -- like what happens when someone presses the back button or home button while your background thread (not your UI thread) is still doing processing... And having to do manual garbage collection when manipulating/copying large images from the camera.... And the camera API itself -- could use some improvements in documentation, and in the API itself. (That is another topic.) The version of BabelSnap I submitted to ADC works well if you can acquire a good image for the OCR. But this takes a bit of practice, holding the camera steady while focusing, framing the text properly, and hitting the shutter button all at once. I want it to work a little more "casually", and not require so much practice. The revision I am currently working on will permit the user to assist in picking out the relevant bits of the snapped pic that contain the text they want to translate, by simply touching/dragging across that part of the image. In all, I have a very positive experience in creating an Android app. I am impressed with what I could assemble in such a short period of time. As for the deadline and submitting updates..... Google *had* the draw the line somewhere. I could have gone on indefinitely fixing things up. I was glad to have a hard deadline, and sad to give up some functions that I wish could have been present for the judging. I do like the approach of continuing to make revisions available in the Market independent of the ADC submission. I also think Google has the right approach in trying to cultivate new mobile app ideas -- everyone loves a little competition. And Google seems serious; they've put forth a great deal of cash and hardware. Good luck to all. I look forward to trying out your new apps. -broc On Sep 2, 12:41 am, Lout <lout.r...@googlemail.com> wrote: > While you developers relax... would you mind sharing what apps to > expect through this challenge.. and anything else you wish to share > about ADC2 submissions... well anything including the fact: 'thank > God, no more sleep less nights'! > > Am collecting information about the challenge (ADC2) for a news > article as am with cnet (and AP). Pitch your app if you have already > published or would soon publish on the market too. > > Your app name and description, web link if any, experience with > ADC2, ... anything would be useful for our article(s). > > And do you feel that there would have been more submissions than in > ADC1? > Is the competition going to be tougher or less profound as you were > allowed to put up apps not published before 1st Aug only? > > Do you think that all apps that didn't try for ADC1 should have had a > chance? > > Congratulations on your submissions while you wait for the next > phase. > Thanks, > Lout Reilly > ps: Moderators we request you to let this through so that you too get > some feedback. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
