Quest Visual

Last updated
Quest Visual, Inc.
Type Private
Industry Translation software
Founded2009 (2009) [1]
Founder Otavio Good [1]
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
U.S.
Number of locations
1 office
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
 Otavio Good
(Programmer and CEO)
John DeWeese
Eric Park
Bryan Lin

Maia Good
(Software engineers)
Products Word Lens
Number of employees
4 (2014)
Website QuestVisual.com

Quest Visual, Inc. was an American private company that developed Word Lens, an augmented reality translation application. [1] In May 2014, the company was acquired by Google, Inc. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Company

Quest Visual was founded by a former video game developer Otavio Good [5] [6] [7] in 2009. [1] At the time of acquisition the company had 4 full-time employees (Good, John DeWeese, Bryan Lin, and Eric Park,) and a contractor, Maia Good. [7] The details of the acquisition have not been released. [2] [3] [4] [8]

Products

Quest Visual's first product, Word Lens 1.0, was released on December 16, 2010, [5] and was available in 2015 as Word Lens 2.2.3 for Apple's iPhone, iPod, and iPad through iTunes, [9] as well as for a selection of Android smartphones through Google Play. [10] It was unavailable as of 2021. [9] At Google's unveiling of its Glass Development Kit in November 2013, translation capabilities of Word Lens were also demonstrated on Google Glass. [11] [12] [13] [14] According to a January 2014 New York Times article, Word Lens is currently free for Google Glass. [15] Google also made all Word Lens language packs freely available for a "limited time". [3] [4] [8] [16] [17] Word Lens capabilities were incorporated into the Google Translate app and released on January 14, 2015. [18] [19] [20] [21] The company did not have any other products by the time of acquisition. [22]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Armstrong, Natalie (April 19, 2011). "Word Lens app developer builds on social media buzz". Reuters . Retrieved April 19, 2011.
  2. 1 2 Etherington, Darrell (May 16, 2014). "Google Has Acquired Quest Visual, The Maker Of Camera-Based Translation App Word Lens". TechCrunch .
  3. 1 2 3 Rosenblatt, Seth (May 16, 2014). "Google buys Word Lens maker to boost Translate". CNET .
  4. 1 2 3 Hall, Zac (May 16, 2014). "Google acquires Word Lens app recently featured in Apple's iPhone ad "Powerful"". 9to5Mac .
  5. 1 2 Tsotsis, Alexia (December 16, 2010). "Word Lens Translates Words Inside of Images. Yes Really". TechCrunch . Retrieved April 19, 2011.
  6. ↑ Milian, Mark (December 20, 2010). "New iPhone app translates foreign-language signs". CNN: Tech. Retrieved April 19, 2010.
  7. 1 2 Olson, Parmy (December 22, 2010). "Hot, New 'Word Lens' App Is Founder's First Project In Augmented Reality". Forbes . Retrieved April 19, 2011.
  8. 1 2 Winkler, Rolfe (May 16, 2014). "Google Tries Another Reality With Quest Visual Purchase". The Wall Street Journal .
  9. 1 2 "Word Lens on the iTunes App Store". itunes.apple.com. 2012. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Word Lens on the Google Play Store". 2012. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  11. ↑ Gannes, Liz (November 19, 2013). "Next Google Glass Tricks Include Translating the World From Your Eyes". All Things Digital .
  12. ↑ Honan, Mat (November 19, 2013). "Google's New Tools Show How Deep Glass Will Embed in Our Lives". Wired: Gadget Lab.
  13. ↑ Rosenblatt, Seth (November 19, 2013). "Google Glass throws open its doors to developers". CNET .
  14. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic (November 24, 2013). "Glass Just Got Way More Interesting". TechCrunch .
  15. ↑ Rosenbloom, Stephanie (January 23, 2014). "Google Tools for Globetrotters". The New York Times: Travel.
  16. ↑ Tschorn, Adam (May 22, 2014). "Say what? Word Lens translation app is easy and free (for now)". Los Angeles Times .
  17. ↑ "Quest Visual is joining Google!". questvisual.com. 2014. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
  18. ↑ Turovsky, Barak (January 14, 2015). "Hallo, hola, olá to the new, more powerful Google Translate app". Google: Official Blog. Retrieved January 14, 2015.
  19. ↑ Dougherty, Conor (January 14, 2015). "Google Translate App Gets an Upgrade". The New York Times: Bits. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
  20. ↑ Rosenbloom, Stephanie (January 14, 2015). "Updates for Google Translate (Just Hold Up Your Phone)". The New York Times: In Transit. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  21. ↑ Ulanoff, Lance (January 15, 2015). "Hands on with Google Translate: A mix of awesome and OK". Mashable . Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Quest Visual website". QuestVisual.com. 2011. Retrieved April 20, 2011.
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